Chinese firms on Enforcement Directorate lens

New Delhi: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) was conducting raids at 40 locations in Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Bihar, and in southern States, in connection with a prevention of money laundering case linked to Vivo and other Chinese firms.

Sources said the office of Vivo and the premises of a few other Chinese firms were being raided. Vivo has not said anything as of now and the ED officials also have not come on record. The CBI has also been probing the case and lodged a separate FIR.

In April, the ED had said they seized Rs5,551.27 crore of Xiaomi Technology India Private Limited lying in the bank accounts under the provisions of Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA) in connection with the illegal outward remittances made by the company.

The company had released a statement then saying, "we have studied the order from the government authorities carefully. We believe our royalty payments and statements to the bank are all legit and truthful. These royalty payments that Xiaomi India made were for the in-licensed technologies and IPs used in our Indian version products. It is a legitimate commercial arrangement for Xiaomi India to make such royalty payments. However, we are committed to working closely with government authorities to clarify any misunderstandings."

On March 3, the Income-Tax (I-T) Department had said that they conducted raids against the Chinese firms dealing in telecom products and learnt that the companies were involved in tax evasion through fake receipts.