The Ministry of Labour and Employment has sent a notice to the Chinese telecom equipment manufacturing firm Huawei for allegedly employing a large number of Chinese workers in the country without proper work permits.

The Ministry has also said that the Chinese workers in the company were not paying applicable income-tax.

The notice comes a few days ahead of the opening of a mega BSNL tender for 90 million GSM lines for which Huawei is also likely to bid.

When contacted, the Huawei spokesperson said, “We have received this above mentioned letter at our office today, on August 25 and we are quite naturally seized of the matter and are in the process of updating and appraising the Ministry concerned on the various points highlighted in the letter.

On employees

Currently Huawei Telecommunications India employs approximately 1,100 employees and more than 99 per cent of these are Indian engineers and marketing professionals.

“Apart from the above, currently we have around 200 expatriate staff (from China) in India who are holding business visas and are here for a short period to impart training to Indian employees, participate in tender/contract discussions with our Indian customers (operators) and to interface with key customers on solving specific customer problems and issues.

“They are employees of our parent company Huawei Technologies Company Ltd and they go back to China once their meetings and trainings are over.”

On tax evasion

On the issue of alleged tax evasion by its employees, Huawei said, “Huawei Telecommunications India strictly complies with Indian tax regulations and mandates, since inception.

“We have been paying our statutory liabilities in terms of personal income-tax and corporate income-tax regularly to the Indian Government authorities.

Any Chinese business visa holder who stays in this country for more than 183 days pays tax according to the rules and regulations of the Government of India.”

A letter sent by the Inspector – Fraud Investigation of the Ministry of Labour and Employment said, “It has been observed that most of the Chinese workers have been staying in India on business visas illegally residing in apartments without resident permits for prolonged periods abusing visa rules and convention.

The authority will be at liberty to conduct surprise raids at your various business premises for inspection to enforce compliance any time after two weeks from this day.”

Source:thehindubusinessline