‘Oppo, Vivo and Xiaomi committed tax evasion of around Rs 9,000 cr’: Rajeev Chandrasekhar in Parliament

Chinese smartphone manufacturers, namely Oppo Mobile, Vivo India, and Xiaomi Technology, have been caught avoiding tax payments amounting to Rs 9,000 crore in India, according to information presented in the Parliament. The data, provided by Minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar, the Minister of State for Electronics and IT, revealed that this tax evasion involved customs duty and GST and was detected between the years 2018-19 and 2022-23.

During this period, the government successfully recovered Rs 1,629.87 crore from these companies. The specific tax evasion amounts were as follows:

• Oppo Mobile India Pvt Ltd evaded Rs 5,086 crore, comprising Rs 4,403 crore in customs duty and Rs 683 crore in GST.
• Vivo evaded Rs 2,923.25 crore, including Rs 2,875 crore in customs duty and Rs 48.25 crore in GST.
• Xiaomi Technology India Pvt Ltd’s evasion amounted to Rs 851.14 crore, with Rs 682.51 crore in customs duty and Rs 168.63 crore in GST.

In 2019-20, customs duty evasion of Rs 4,389 crore was detected in the case of Oppo Mobile India Pvt Ltd, of which Rs 450 crore has been recovered. In the same period, Vivo India Mobile Pvt Ltd evaded customs duty of Rs 2,217 crore, with Rs 72 crore recovered in 2020-21. Xiaomi Technology India Pvt Ltd evaded custom duty of Rs 653.02 crore, of which Rs 46 lakh has been recovered. In 2022-23, Vivo Mobile India Pvt Ltd was found to be evading Rs 658 crore, while Lenovo evaded Rs 42.36 crore in GST.

As per official data, the government has managed to recover Rs 1,214.83 crore from Oppo, Rs 168.25 crore from Vivo, and Rs 92.8 crore from Xiaomi.

The minister responded to a question about the number of Chinese handset companies involved in tax evasion and illegal remittances in India.

Chandrasekhar stated that the cumulative turnover of Chinese mobile handset companies in India for the year 2021-22 was estimated to be Rs 1.5 lakh crore, generating more than 75,000 direct employment opportunities in their manufacturing operations, along with around 80,000 sales and operational workforce.

He also said that primarily, these Chinese companies have set up their own manufacturing units.

“However, they work with contract manufacturers like Bharat FIH Limited and DBG Technology (India) Private Limited also which have also set up Electronics Manufacturing Services (EMS) operations in India. The distribution of mobile handsets is mainly handled by Indian companies.

“However, some of the Chinese companies like Oppo and Vivo have some Chinese distributors also,” Chandrasekhar said.