India Authority Finds Oppo Avoiding Tremendous Taxes

India’s Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) has detected duty evasion up to 43.89 billion Indian Rubies (about $551 million) by the India branch of Communist China’s mobile company Oppo, and a show-cause notice (SCN) has been issued to the company to recover the amount, India’s Union Finance Ministry said on Wednesday, July 13th.

 Besides, criminal action will be taken against Oppo India, its employees and Oppo China under various provisions of the Customs Act, 1962, the ministry added. During the course of its investigation, the DRI conducted searches at dozens of office premises of Oppo India and residences of its key management staff, and found evidence of criminal indicating “intentional misdeclaration in the description of certain items imported by Oppo India for use in the manufacture of mobile phones.”

 This resulted in Oppo India wrongly receiving duty exemption benefits amounting to 29.81 billion Indian Rubies. In addition, the company evaded a 14.08 billion Indian-Ruby levy by concealing its payment of royalty and license fees to various multinational companies. According to the Union Finance Ministry, these payments should have been added to the transaction value of imported goods by the company. By not doing so, Oppo has violated Section 14 of the Customs Act, 1962, and Rule 10 of the Customs Valuation Rules, 2007 (determination of value of imported goods), the ministry added.

 Oppo India is engaged in the business of manufacturing, assembling, wholesale trading and distributing mobile phones and its accessories in India. Oppo India deals in various brands of mobile phones including Oppo, OnePlus and Realme. Oppo and Vivo, as well as Realme, OnePlus and iQOO, are owned by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP)’s BBK Electronics.