Income Tax Officials Search Lenovo Offices As Part Of Tax Evasion Probe: Report

Lenovo has confirmed the I-T department's visit, Reuters reported.

The Income Tax department raided Chinese IT hardware manufacturer Lenovo's office in Bengaluru, Karnataka as part of a tax evasion probe, PTI reported on Wednesday. The I-T visited Lenovo Puducherry too, as part of the inquiry, says a report by news agency Reuters. Lenovo has confirmed the I-T department's visit and was quoted as saying that it was "cooperating with the authorities and will provide all possible support required".

The reason for the visit was not immediately clear, the Reuters report noted.

The PTI report quoted official sources and added that the raids covered Lenovo's premises in Haryana’s Gurugram and Karnataka’s capital city Bengaluru. The sources mentioned that I-T official suspects tax evasion and therefore, has started a probe to collect evidence and corroborate actionable intelligence obtained by it in this regard.

It should be noted that data shared by the Minister of State for Electronics and IT Rajeev Chandrasekhar in Rajya Sabha in July showed tax evasion of around Rs 9,000 crore, comprising customs duty and GST, has been detected between 2018-19 and 2022-23. The government recovered Rs 1,629.87 crore from the companies during the period, PTI had reported.

According to the data, Oppo Mobile India Pvt Ltd has been found evading Rs 5,086 crore in taxes which includes Rs 4,403 crore in customs duty and Rs 683 crore in the form of GST. Vivo has evaded taxes worth Rs 2,923.25 crore comprising Rs 2,875 crore in customs duty and Rs 48.25 crore in GST, according to the written reply by Chandrasekhar. Tax evasion of Rs 851.14 crore has been detected in the case of Xiaomi Technology India Pvt Ltd comprising Rs 682.51 crore in customs duty and Rs 168.63 crore in GST.

Chandrasekhar shared that customs duty evasion of Rs 4,389 crore was detected in 2019-20 in the case of Oppo Mobile India Pvt Ltd, out of which Rs 450 crore has been recovered. Vivo India Mobile Pvt Ltd was found to be evading customs duty of Rs 2,217 crore out of which Rs 72 crore has been recovered in 2020-21.