Income Tax Authorities Search Huawei Premises In Delhi, Bengaluru

India's income tax officials carried out search operations in several branches of the Chinese Telecom equipment maker Huawei as a part of a tax investigation. The searches were conducted in Huawei's office in New Delhi, Gurugram and the IT capital Bengaluru. The government officials looked at the financial documents, account books, Huawei's Indian businesses, and overseas transactions. Earlier this week, the Indian government had banned 54 mobile applications of Chinese origin.

Previous Searches By Enforcement Directorate

Moreover, the Enforcement Directorate had also carried out searches previously and frozen the assets of Chinese controlled companies and non-banking financial companies providing instant loans to Indians through mobile apps. On the other hand, Huawei said, "We have been informed of the visit of (the) income tax team to our office and also of their meeting with some personnel. Huawei is confident our operations in India are firmly compliant with all laws and regulations. We will approach related government departments for more information and fully cooperate as per the rules and regulations", WION reported.

Increasing Tensions Between India And China

India is home to the world's second-largest market of mobile phone users. Therefore, the government had previously justified the ban on the 54 applications as a threat to the national sovereignty and integrity of the nation. Last year India overlooked Huawei when it named foreign network equipment suppliers allowed to carry out 5G trials. Tensions between the two countries have escalated since the 2020 Galwan Valley clash. Since then, the anti-China sentiment in India has been on the rise, and there have been demands to boycott the goods from neighbouring countries.

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