A few days ago, Vivo India was in the news for alleged for taxes evasion. Now, one more smartphone brand is under the radar of the agencies for evading customs duty. DRI has searched Oppo India and has found evaded customs duty worth Rs. 4389 crores.
As a part of their investigation, offices of Oppo India have searched along with the residences of the key employees of the company. This led to the recovery of incriminating evidence indicating willful mis-discretion in the description of certain items imported by Oppo India for use in the manufacture of mobile phones.
“The mis-discretion resulted in wrongful availment of ineligible duty exemption benefits by Oppo India amounting to Rs. 2981 crore. Among others, senior management employees and domestic suppliers of Oppo India were questioned, who in their voluntary statements accepted the submission of wrongful description before the Customs Authorities at the time of import”, according to a statement given by PIB.
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The release states that the investigation also revealed that Oppo India had made provisions for payment of Royalty and License Fee to various multinational companies, including those in China, in lieu of the use of the proprietary brand license. The Royalty and License Fee paid by Oppo India was not added to the transaction value of the good imported by them, which is a violation of Section 14 of the Customs Valuation Rules 2007. The alleged duty evasion is Rs. 1408 crore.
Earlier ED had frozen Vivo India’s accounts over money laundering and today the court lifted a freeze and ordered the company to provide a bank guarantee of 119 million dollars, a lawyer said.
