Nokia protests tax raid at Chennai plant; calls it unfair

Finland-based mobile handset giant Nokia said on Tuesday it had protested to the Indian government over a tax raid at one of its factories in Chennai, and criticised the action as "excessive and unacceptable".

Officials last month raided one of Nokia's manufacturing units in the Tamil Nadu capital of Chennai as part of an investigation into tax department suspicions that it may have evaded taxes totalling Rs3,000 crore.

Nokia, which strongly denies evading any taxes, said it had sent a "letter of objection" to Indian tax authorities. It said the income tax department's action ran counter to the domestic laws of India and international standards.

"The actions of the income tax authorities in Chennai are excessive, unacceptable and inconsistent with Indian standards of fair play and governance," Nokia said in a statement.

''Specifically, in tax investigations like this, local standards would prohibit government officials from entering the factory premises and offices of 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," Nokia said.

The company further said that it has not received any official information on the potential tax claims, and thus far has only seen wildly varying claims from anonymous officials via the media.