IT dept raids entities linked to Chinese mobile phone manufacturers

The Income Tax Department on Wednesday conducted multiple searches in various states against entities engaged with Chinese mobilephone manufacturers on charges of tax evasion, official sources said.

The raids are being carried out at premises located in the national capital region and some states in the south, they said.

Earlier, the Chinese firms who were allegedly running mobile loan applications and transport businesses were raided by the agencies. A few more firms have now come under their radar. According to sources, several teams were formed by the IT department on Wednesday morning to conduct searches which started around 9 am. An official said that manufacturing units were raided along with a few corporate houses.

“Few teams also raided the godowns of the Chinese mobile companies. The officials have recovered incriminating documents,” said the source. ZTE, a Chinese firm that deals in telecom equipment manufacturing in Gurugram, was on the radar of the IT depdepartment. The firm was also raided in August this year. “We had recorded the statement of their India head in connection with tax evasion. We had found irregularities on their end. They were concealing information to avoid tax,” said the official.

(With inputs from IANS)