Indian tax authorities search premises of China's Huawei

[BENGALURU] India's income tax authorities have conducted searches at multiple premises of Chinese telecoms equipment maker Huawei Technologies as part of a tax investigation, a government source told Reuters, confirming local media reports.

The searches were conducted at Huawei's office premises in New Delhi, neighbouring Gurugram and tech hub Bengaluru on Tuesday (Feb 15), the source said on condition of anonymity, in line with government policy.

The development comes a day after government sources told Reuters that India had blocked access to 54 mobile apps, mainly Chinese, over security concerns.

Officials from the income tax department looked at Huawei's financial documents, account books and company records, Indian businesses and overseas transactions, NDTV reported, citing news agency PTI. Some records were also seized, the report added.

"We have been informed of the visit of (the) income tax team to our office and also of their meeting with some personnel,"Huawei said in a statement.

"Huawei is confident our operations in India are firmly compliant with all laws and regulations. We will approach related government departments for more information and fully cooperate as per the rules and regulations." The income tax department declined to comment.

Last year India overlooked Huawei when it named foreign network equipment suppliers allowed to carry out 5G trials in what is one of the world's biggest markets by number of mobile phone users. REUTERS