Oppo responds to Indian Govt accusation of tax evasion, see what it has to say

Oppo responds to the accusations made by the DRI this week for evading tax. Here is what Oppo has to say in that regard.

Oppo responds to the accusations made by the DRI on the matter of Oppo'stax evasion. (Amritanshu / HT Tech)

Earlier in the week, the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) conducted raids and accused Oppo of evading customs duty worth Rs. 4389 Crores. It was said that Oppo officials approved of the error and have already made a pe-payment of Rs. 4.5 billion. At the time though, Oppo did not release any statement to the media and our requests for comment went unanswered. Now though, there is a new statement from the company regarding the DRI accusation.

In the statement made to the media, Oppo says, “We have a different view on the charges mentioned in the SCN. We believe it's an industry-wide issue many corporates are working on. Oppo India is reviewing the SCN received from DRI, and we are going to reply to the notice, presenting our side, and will be working further with the related government departments. Oppo India is a responsible corporate and believes in prudent corporate governance framework. OppoIndia will take appropriate steps as may be needed in this regard including any remedies provided under the law.”

Oppo responds to the DRI accusations

“During the course of investigation, searches were conducted by DRI at the office premises of Oppo India and residences of its key management employees, which led to the recovery of incriminating evidence indicating wilful mis-declaration in the description of certain items imported by Oppo India for use in the manufacture of mobile phones,” said the finance ministry previously on the matter.

The DRI also accused Oppo of not adding its royalty fees and license fees to the transaction value of the goods imported by them, in violation of Section 14 of the Customs Act, 1962, read with Rule 10 of the Customs Valuation (Determination of Value of Imported Goods) Rules 2007, the Centre added.

Similar cases have also been ongoing with rival Chinese companies Xiaomi and Vivo, where both of them have been accused of money laundering. Vivo's bank accounts were frozen completely and it had to appeal to the court to let them access the account in order to make payments to all its stakeholders.

On the other hand, Oppo is also preparing to launch its Reno 8 series of flagship phones along with the Oppo Pad Air tablet and a new Enco X2 TWS earbuds.