Vivo Hits a Wall in India
Vivo (pvt) is not a smartphone brand well-known in the US, however the company held a 7.9% share of the global smartphone market at the end of last year, and a ~16% of the Chinese market at the same point. Owned by China’s BBK Electronics (pvt), along with its sister brands Oppo (pvt), OnePlus (pvt), RealMe (pvt), and iQOO (pvt), Vivo is among the most popular smartphone brands in India, with a share that is on par with Samsung. That said, there has been considerable enmity between the Indian and Chinese governments over border issues for the last few years and occasional flare-ups of anti-Chinese sentiment have been focused on Chinese smartphone brands at times. Some of that antagonism seems to have made it way to the Indian Law Enforcement Agency who recently froze Vivo’s bank accounts, citing the investigation of 48 Vivo locations in India under provisions of the Indian Money Laundering Act.
The Bureau has accused the company (and others) of remitting 62.48t rupees (~$7.85b US) to China and other locations to avoid paying taxes, which represents about half of the company’s revenue. The bureau froze 119 Vivo accounts totaling $57.4m, along with fixed deposits, 2Kg of gold, and cash. Vivo has asked the New Delhi High Court to unblock a number of the accounts so it can pay salaries and dues, who then gave the enforcement agency until tomorrow to make a decision as to whether to unlock the few necessary accounts. The enforcement agency has indicated that the capital was shifted back to China to make the Indian operation look like it was producing a loss and therefore avoid taxes and alleged that some Vivo executives had tried to leave the country when they discovered the investigation and had used forged identification and address documents when they formed the Indian subsidiaries of the company, strangely using the addresses of what turned out to be a government building and the home of a local bureaucrat instead of the real corporate address. The investigation continues….
The Bureau has accused the company (and others) of remitting 62.48t rupees (~$7.85b US) to China and other locations to avoid paying taxes, which represents about half of the company’s revenue. The bureau froze 119 Vivo accounts totaling $57.4m, along with fixed deposits, 2Kg of gold, and cash. Vivo has asked the New Delhi High Court to unblock a number of the accounts so it can pay salaries and dues, who then gave the enforcement agency until tomorrow to make a decision as to whether to unlock the few necessary accounts. The enforcement agency has indicated that the capital was shifted back to China to make the Indian operation look like it was producing a loss and therefore avoid taxes and alleged that some Vivo executives had tried to leave the country when they discovered the investigation and had used forged identification and address documents when they formed the Indian subsidiaries of the company, strangely using the addresses of what turned out to be a government building and the home of a local bureaucrat instead of the real corporate address. The investigation continues….
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