Raids on Xiaomi and Oppo units in India - what did it achieve?

Date:
Fri, 24 Dec 2021 11:24:11 +0000

Description:
The searches were part of a nation-wide operation following intelligence inputs suggesting concealment of income and evasion of taxes by the companies.

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It was a strange week for Foxconn, one of the leading contract manufacturers in India. It has been shut for 5 days due to workers unrest owing to poor quality of food at its hostel. Over 150 had to be hospitalised due to food poisoning. Amidst this, it also emerged that the Foxconn unit had begun trial production of iPhone 13 , with the possibility of commercial manufacture by February 2022.

Added to this, on Wednesday, government officers conducted searches at the unit in Sunguvarchatram near Sriperumbudur (close to Chennai). The Xiaomi arm --- Bharat FIH, to be precise --- functioning within the Foxconn unit was the one targeted for the raid.

But it was not Foxconn alone that was singled out for the raids. The searches were part of a nation-wide operation against the Chinese companies Oppo and Xiaomi. The officers said the raids followed intelligence inputs suggesting concealment of income and evasion of taxes by the companies.

The raids were conducted in over 25 cities across India, including Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Bengaluru, Kolkata and Guwahati.

Foxconn, for the record, apart from being a contractor for Apple devices,
also does work for Xiaomi through Bharat FIH, which as it happens, has announced a Rs 5,000 crore IPO in India this week. Foxconn to set up a semiconductor design centre Move over, iPhone - Foxconn is going big on electric vehicles Xiaomi, Oppo ready to cooperate with govt

The sleuths of the anti-smuggling agency Directorate of Revenue Intelligence searched the factories of Foxconn India's u