Chinese smartphone brands Oppo, Vivo, Xiaomi served notices for duty evasion, FM Nirmala Sitharaman informs Rajya Sabha

New Delhi: Mobile companies Oppo India, Xiaomi India and Vivo India have been served notices by the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) for duty evasion, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman informed the Rajya Sabha on Tuesday.

A show-cause notice demanding Rs 4,403.88 crore has been served to Oppo Mobiles India Ltd based on an investigation conducted by the DRI, while five cases of Customs duty evasion have been registered against Xiaomi Technology India, Sitharaman said in a written reply.

The reply also noted that investigation by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) revealed that Vivo Mobiles India Pvt Ltd has remitted an amount of Rs 0.62 lakh crore mainly to China and its controlled territories, out of their total sales of Rs 1.25 lakh crore during the period between July 2017 and March 2021, which works out to 49.91 per cent.

From 2019 to 2022, in respect of Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC), cases against 43 other such companies have been booked.

As regards to Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT), probe agencies have undertaken search and seizure actions against five groups pertaining to the telecom sector, in which tax evasion has been detected, the minister said.