Tax evasion? I-T search at Nokia's Chennai office

Chennai: A team from the tax evasion detection wing of the Income Tax department was conducting a "survey" at the premises of the Finnish handset maker Nokia's Indian subsidiary here, a senior official said.

"A survey is on in the premises of Nokia by the investigating wing of our department," Chief Commissioner of Income Tax (Chennai) S.Senthamarai Kannan told IANS, stressing "search" and "survey" are different in IT parlance.

"In a search operation, the business and residential premises are searched and the officials have the power to seize documents. However, a survey is done only in the business premises," he said, adding that a survey is done only when there is a suspicion of tax evasion.

Queried whether Nokia India has evaded tax to the tune of around Rs.3,000 crore, Kannan said a clear picture will be known only Wednesday as the survey is still on.

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The IT officials are inspecting Nokia India's books as they suspect that the company has not been paying any tax on the payments made to its parent company in Finland for the past seven years.

IANS