TIOL-DDT 2044 · Wednesday, 13 February 2013 · story 2 of 5

Income Tax Department's action excessive - Nokia - Not Connected

AILING Mobile phone giant Nokia reacted sharply to Indian Income Tax raids and investigation against them. They say,

The actions of the Income Tax authorities in Chennai are excessive, unacceptable and inconsistent with Indian standards of fair play and governance.

Specifically, in tax investigations like this, local standards would prohibit government officials from entering the factory premises and Nokia IT systems without valid authorisation and questioning individual employees for intolerably long periods of time, even after they have fully cooperated with the authorities.

We do not see any merit in any of the claims, and are ready to defend ourselves vigorously.

It seems the Income Tax department is armed with a demand of about Rs. 15,000 Crores on Nokia.

Another major multinational under the Income Tax scanner is Shell India and everyone knows Vodafone.

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