A day after Chinese telecom firm Huawei confirmed that it had received a notice from the “labour ministry” saying it had employed a large number of Chinese workers in India without proper work permits, the ministry itself denied sending one.

An official statement from the labour and employment ministry on Tuesday stated that “no such notice has been issued by the ministry.”

A Huawei spokesperson had said on Monday that the company was trying to verify whether the letter, alleging fraudulent act by it, was actually from the labour ministry.

It is not clear yet on who is behind the mischief, if the labour ministry did not send the notice.

Last week, Huawei had received a letter allegedly from the labour ministry, which said that the government would take action against the company for employing a large number of Chinese workers in India without proper work permits.

The letter added that these workers were “also not paying the applicable income tax for which they do not have immunity”.

The letter, which was in the form of a notice, had said that the company was violating the law of the land, terming it as a fraudulent act.

The communication to Huawei also said that the top management of the company including the CEO would be reprimanded by financial penalties or imprisonment.

Not just that, it asked the company to repatriate such workers immediately. The threatening letter added that the government could even ask Huawei to close its business premises in India.

While confirming that the company had received the notice, the Huawei spokesperson said that the company strictly complied with Indian tax regulations, and that there was no violation of the law. He had added that veracity of the labour ministry’s notice was yet to be confirmed.

A source however said that Chinese workers in India were often using short term business visas rather than work permits. “Even then most of them managed working in India for two to three years.” This is not just true for a particular firm, he said. “The government has been lenient on the issue,” he added.

Recently, Huawei was under the government scanner over national security issues when the Chinese firm wanted to set up a manufacturing base in India. Subsequently, it had to withdraw its proposal from the Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB).

Source:dnaindia