Huawei CEO Secures Bail From Delhi Court In Tax Evasion Probe

A lower court has passed a judgement in the favour of Huawei Telecommunications’ CEO Li Xiongwei. The local court has granted conditional bail to Xiongwei only if he submits an interest-bearing fixed deposit receipt (FDR) of INR 5 Lakh and two Indian individuals as sureties. 

According to the ET report, the trial court has asked Huawei India’s CEO to submit FDR in the name of the principal district and sessions judge, Tis Hazari Delhi.

It has to be noted that Huawei India’s CEO approached a local court urging a bail plea and also, challenging the look-out circular (LOC) issued against him by the I-T department. He earlier filed a petition in Delhi High Court but the Apex Court directed the trial court (local court) to pass judgement on the matter.  

In a recent hearing, the local court said that Huawei India’s CEO is a foreign national and if he seeks to leave India and would not return then his personal bond (FDR) will become worthless. 

After observing the I-T department’s documents that mentioned Huawei India’s CEO presence will be required in the ongoing investigation, the local court has directed the I-T department to officially submit a letter of request and LOC proforma in a sealed cover within a week. 

Meanwhile, Huawei India’s CEO was commanded to inform the I-T department seven days prior to leaving India if the LOC gets revoked.

A few months back, the I-T department issued a LOC against Huawei India’s CEO owing to his misconduct during the investigation hinting that he would leave India and flee to his home country.

At the time of investigation, Xiongwei was not giving access to auditing books and emails of key professionals in the management team such as the CFO of Huawei India. The probe was conducted on the grounds of money laundering and tax evasion. 

Besides this, Huawei’s auditor also informed the I-T department that the data dump shared by Huawei India is not sufficient to audit financial books. The auditor further said that the data dump shared by the Chinese smartphone maker has to be reconciled with its financial statements. 

The auditor’s statement also supported the I-T department’s claims that Huawei’s data dump is not sufficient to ascertain its taxable income.

In the last two years, the Centre has been probing various Chinese players that are operating in the country for evading taxes and moving their revenue to Chinese parents. Some of these Chinese firms are Vivo, Oppo and Honor. 

Besides this, the Indian government has also reduced the participation of Chinese investors or investment companies in the country’s business ecosystem. All these changes have been made after the Chinese and Indian armies clashed on Himalayan borders in 2020. The clash bittered relations between the two countries and thus, reduced their codependency. 

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