Govt is not banning phones by Chinese companies under Rs 12,000: Report

The Indian government is not planning to ban the sale of smartphones made Chinese companies that are priced under Rs 12,000, a new report has claimed. Earlier this month, a report by Bloomberg stated that the government was planning to prohibit China-based companies from selling low-end smartphones under Rs 12,000 in a bid to boost smartphones by domestic brands such as Micromax, Karbonn and Lava. At the same time, reports had also said that the move coincides with companies such as Realme and Transsion Holdings that has investments in budget smartphone makers such a Tecno, Itel and Infinix, undercutting local manufacturers. But now a fresh report refutes that claim.

A report by CNBC-TV18 quoting sources said that the government had no plans of banning China-based smartphone makers from selling smartphones in the low-budget smartphone segment in India. “Meanwhile, sources stated that government has denied reports suggesting the ban,” the publication noted.

Interestingly, the development comes shortly after the Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in a written response informed the Rajya Sabha that the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) had issued notices to various China-based smartphone makers such as Oppo India, Vivo India and Xiaomi India for duty evasion. A show-cause notice demanding Rs 4,403.88 crore has been served to OPPO Mobiles India Ltd based on an investigation conducted by the DRI, while five cases of Customs duty evasion have been registered against Xiaomi Technology India, the Finance Minister had said in a written reply.

In her reply, the Finance Minister also said that agency had also issued a show-cause notice to Vivo India demanding customs duty worth Rs 2,217 crore. DRI had detected customs duty evasion of around Rs 2,217 crore by Vivo Mobile India Private Ltd. The reply also noted that an investigation by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) had revealed that Vivo Mobiles India Pvt Ltd has remitted an amount of Rs 0.62 lakh crore mainly to China and its controlled territories, out of their total sales of Rs 1.25 lakh crore during the period between July 2017 and March 2021.

Meanwhile, Vivo India has refuted ED’s claims saying that the money, which the ED claims was used for acts of financial terrorism, was used for procuring raw material and other services that are needed by its mobile manufacturing business in India.

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