India Accuses Chinese Smartphone Giant Vivo Of Visa Violations And Tax Evasion, Covertly Siphoning Off US$13 Billion To The Mainland

Many Chinese workers Smartphone giant Vivo and its Indian partners hid their work while obtaining visas, and some broke the law by visiting the sensitive Himalayan region of Jammu and Kashmir. This was reported by the Financial Crimes Enforcement Agency of India .

The court announcement comes amid rising trade tensions with Beijing after New Delhi tightened restrictions on foreign investment and banned the entry of hundreds of Chinese nationals. Application , he continued In 2020, 20 Indian soldiers and four Chinese soldiers were killed in border clashes .

The undisclosed charges, detailed in court documents on Tuesday, follow the arrest this week of Vivo Chief Executive Guanwen Kuang as part of a 2022 money laundering probe into India's second-largest smartphone maker.

At least 30 Chinese came to India on business visas and worked as Vivo employees, but their application forms “never indicated” that the company was the country's largest employer. This is stated in a 32-page Enforcement Directorate (ED) statement.

“Several Chinese nationals have traveled to India, including to sensitive regions like Jammu, Kashmir and Ladakh, in violation of Indian visa rules,” the ED added, highlighting the alleged crimes for the first time.

“Many employees of Vivo group companies are working in India without appropriate visas,” the agency said in a statement.

“They hide information about their employers in visa applications and mislead the Indian embassy or mission in China.”

When asked for comment, Vivo, which has a 17 percent market share in India, the world's second-largest smartphone market, said earlier this week that the executive's arrest "concerns us greatly" and said it was "extremely worrying." Compliance with the law.”

Vivo China boss among four people arrested for money laundering in India

China's Foreign Ministry, which this week said it was monitoring the issue closely, did not respond to Reuters' request for comment.

The Indian Embassy in Beijing and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in New Delhi also did not respond.

In a decades-long border dispute, India and China claim most of the territory in the western Himalayas controlled by each other.

India prohibits foreigners from entering or staying in areas it has designated as “no-go zones” in Ladakh and parts of Jammu and Kashmir unless they receive government permission, a document other than a visa.

Indian investigators searched the offices of Chinese smartphone maker Vivo

Court filings revealed this week that 1.07 trillion rupees ($13 billion) was transferred from India to certain trading companies controlled by Vivo's Chinese parent company, in what the agency described as a “mask” to avoid the state-owned company spiraling out of control.

“From 2014-2015 to 2019-2020, huge amounts of money were withdrawn from India even though there was no surplus in statutory accounts and no income tax was paid,” the ED said.

In July last year, the institution transferred IDR 624.7 billion in funds, mostly to China.

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