Vivo India sent 50 per cent of income to China, says ED

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has seized 119 bank accounts of various entities with Rs 465 crore including fixed deposits to the tune of 66 crores of Vivo India after conducting searches at 48 locations across the country. According to ED, Vivo India remitted Rs 62,476 crores (almost 50% of the turnover out of India) to China. These remittances were allegedly made in order to disclose huge losses in Indian incorporated companies to avoid payment of taxes in India. The agency has blocked 119 bank accounts linked to Vivo's India business which were holding Rs 465 crore, Rs 73 lakh cash and 2 kg gold bars, as part of a probe into alleged money laundering by the company. 

According to the ED, they have evidence that Vivo officials used forged documents while incorporating the companies. It alleged that "employees of Vivo India, including some Chinese nationals, did not cooperate with the search proceedings and tried to abscond, remove and hide digital devices which were retrieved by the search teams." The addresses mentioned did not belong to them, but in fact it was a government building and house of a senior bureaucrat, the agency said.

The financial probe agency had conducted searches at locations linked to VIVO Mobiles India Private Limited and its 23 associated companies such as Grand Prospect International Communication Pvt Ltd (GPICPL). GPICPL was incorporated by Chinese nationals - Zhengshen Ou, Bin Lou and Zhang Jie with the help of a chartered accountant, Nitin Garg. Interestingly, Bin Lou left India on April 26, 2018, whereas Zhengshen Ou and Zhang Jie left India in 2021. Vivo Mobiles India Pvt Ltd was incorporated on August 1, 2014 as a subsidiary of Multi Accord Ltd, a Hong Kong-based company and was registered in Delhi. GPICPL was registered on December 3, 2014 at Shimla, with registered addresses of Solan, Himachal Pradesh and Gandhinagar, Jammu.