Xiaomi has found itself in legal trouble in India recently. The Indian government seized the Chinese company’s assets worth millions of dollars citing illegal remittances to three foreign entities. This allegedly included one Xiaomi group entity that was disguised as royalty.
Before this incident, Xiaomi also found itself in hot waters over allegations of tax evasion by the Enforcement Directorate (ED), Income Tax Department, and Customs Department in India.
Xiaomi has denied these accusations in court, but only a day after the court order, a new rumor surfaced on the internet claiming that Xiaomi is planning to move operations from India to Pakistan to escape the trouble.
The Chinese brand has now officially denied these rumors, stating that these are “completely false & baseless.” Here is what the statement says:
Xiaomi entered India in 2014 & in less than a year, we embarked on our Make in India journey. 99 percent of our smartphones & 100 percent of our TVs are made in India. We’ll take all measures to protect our reputation from false & inaccurate claims.
However, since assets worth millions of dollars have been seized from Xiaomi, the company has said that its operations have been “effectively halted” in the second-largest smartphone market in the world. Despite these dire circumstances, the Karnataka High Court refuses to provide any relief to the company until the investigation is over.
For clarification, Xiaomi devices are available in Pakistan, but the company itself is not present here directly like in India, instead it has partnered with local distributors. India’s smartphone and electronics market is far larger than Pakistan, so it makes sense that Xiaomi focuses on that region more prominently than others.
However, it is worth mentioning that Xiaomi has started producing smartphones in Pakistan at a higher rate than before.