India Tax Officials Raid Nokia Plant and Offices as Nation Cracks Down on Alleged Tax Evasion

By

Nokia's plant in Chennai, India, was raided this week by Indian tax officials. Some 20 government tax officials arrived at the Nokia plant in Sriperumbudur and Nokia’s offices in Chennai on Tuesday.

The company said it will cooperate with government officials, but it remains unclear what documents they were searching for, Reuters reported.


Image via Shutterstock

"Nokia is fully cooperating to ensure they get the necessary information to help in their inquiry," Nokia’s Brett Young told The Wall Street Journal.

The inquiry may relate to questions over whether Nokia paid $543 million in taxes, Reuters reported based on a statement from an unnamed government official. There could be a controversy over the distribution of tax payments between India and Finland. Finland is where Nokia is headquartered.

India's finance ministry says it is going after tax evaders given the nation’s fiscal deficit.

In another recent situation, Indian tax officials claim Vodafone owes over $2 billion in taxes related to the majority acquisition of an Indian telecom company, Hutchison Whampoa Ltd., in 2007.

Such actions make it more difficult for tech companies to operate in India. Besides tax officials, foreign companies have to deal with unreliable energy sources, government red-tape, and examples of poor infrastructure – all at a time when India is trying to increase the number of tech plants located in the nation.

Tax officials are a frequent target of criticism by taxpayers. For instance, over a year ago some Indian farmers dumped bags of snakes in a Basti tax office. The snakes totaled about 40, and included at least four deadly cobras. No injuries took place as a result of the prank.




Edited by Brooke Neuman
Get stories like this delivered straight to your inbox. [Free eNews Subscription]

TechZone360 Contributor

SHARE THIS ARTICLE
Related Articles

Can Science Outsmart Deepfake Deceivers? Klick Labs Proposes an Emerging Solution

By: Alex Passett    3/25/2024

Researchers at Klick Labs were able to identify audio deepfakes from authentic audio recordings via new vocal biomarker technology (alongside AI model…

Read More

Top 5 Best Ways to Integrate Technology for Successful Project-Based Learning

By: Contributing Writer    3/19/2024

Project-based learning, also popularly known as the PBL curriculum, emphasizes using and integrating technology with classroom teaching. This approach…

Read More

How to Protect Your Website From LDAP Injection Attacks

By: Contributing Writer    3/12/2024

Prevent LDAP injection attacks with regular testing, limiting access privileges, sanitizing user input, and applying the proper encoding functions.

Read More

Azure Cost Optimization: 5 Things You Can Do to Save on Azure

By: Contributing Writer    3/7/2024

Azure cost optimization is the process of managing and reducing the overall cost of using Azure. It involves understanding the resources you're using,…

Read More

Massive Meta Apps and Services Outage Impacts Users Worldwide

By: Alex Passett    3/5/2024

Meta's suite of apps and services are experiencing major global outages on Super Tuesday 2024.

Read More