The Enforcement Directorate, in one of its biggest hauls, has seized Chinese smartphone manufacturer Xiaomi India's assets worth Rs 5,551.27 crore. The agency, which investigates financial crimes, found the company in violation of the Foreign Exchange Management Act with regard to the illegal outward remittances made by it.
"ED has seized Rs.5551.27 Crore of M/s Xiaomi Technology India Private Limited lying in the bank accounts under the provisions of Foreign Exchange Management Act, 1999 in connection with the illegal outward remittances made by the company," Enforcement Directorate said in a tweet.
Earlier this month, the agency had called the company's global vice president, Manu Kumar Jain, for questioning in the case. He was questioned by an investigating officer in Bengaluru.
The case involves foreign remittances made by the country to China via a third company, violating RBI's guidelines. An ED official had told the Indian Express that around Rs 3,000 crore were sent to China in violation of the FEMA. A case had been registered against the company for the same.
The news daily had reported that Jain had been asked to furnish financial documents pertaining to the company, including shareholding, fund sources, vendor contracts and payments made abroad.
A Xiaomi spokesperson had told the news agency PTI that they were a law-abiding company.
"We give paramount importance to the laws of the land. We are fully compliant with all the regulations and are confident of the same. We are cooperating with authorities with their ongoing investigation to ensure they have all the requisite information," the spokesperson said.
In December last year, the Income Tax Department had raided the offices of Xiaomi and other Chinese mobile companies.
Ever since the Ladakh face-off started between the armies of India and China, several Chinese applications, including TikTok and some owned by Xiaomi, have been banned by the Centre.
Xiaomi is the market leader in the Indian smartphone space.
