Huawei Telecommunications (India)’s CEO Li Xiongwei has been restricted from leaving India. In a petition, the I-T department told the Delhi High Court that a look out circular (LOC) has been issued against Xiongwei due to his conduct during the course of the investigation that hinted he would leave the country soon.
According to the ET report, Huawei India’s CEO filed a petition to the court requesting to revoke the LOC that was issued against him.
In the petition, the I-T department further informed that the CEO was not cooperative and denied access to auditing books and emails of key individuals such as CFO of Huawei India, who mostly stays outside India.
The I-T department has also urged the Delhi High Court to dismiss Huawei CEO’s plea and command him to appeal to a lower court and explain the circumstances under which he seeks to travel abroad.
The LOC circular came to the light of Huawei’s CEO when on May 25th, he was stopped at New Delhi airport and was not permitted to board a flight to Bangkok.
During that time, Huawei’s CEO called this I-T department’s move a blow to Huawei India’s and his reputation.
The latest development comes barely days after Huawei’s auditor informed the I-T department that the raw ERP data dump shared by the Chinese smartphone and gear maker is insufficient to audit financial books.
Huawei’s auditor also informed that the data dump provided by Huawei needed to be reconciled with its financials. As per the I-T department, the auditor’s statement has supported its initial claims that Huawei India’s data dump was not sufficient to determine its taxable income.
Earlier on, the I-T department had accused Huawei of transferring a chunk of money to its parent firm in China as dividends. With this practice, it trimmed its taxable income in India.
Similar to Huawei, a slew of other Chinese companies such as Xiaomi, Vivo, and Oppo are under the radar of the Indian government.
Besides, the Centre’s anti-money laundering body has been probing several Chinese companies’ Indian business units such as Vivo and Oppo for evading tax. The regulatory body is taking stringent measures to curb their operation and expansion in India.
