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Bloomberg

Indian authorities have prevented Vivo from exporting some 27,000 smartphones for more than a week in a setback to the Chinese company’s plan to ship devices from India to neighbouring markets.
The smartphones, manufactured by Vivo Communications Technology Co.’s India unit, are being held up at a New Delhi airport by India’s revenue intelligence unit, a branch of the Finance Ministry, over an alleged misdeclaration of the device models and their value, multiple people familiar with the matter said.
The shipment is worth nearly US$15 million, according to one of the sources. The people declined to be named as the matter is not public.
The finance ministry and Vivo India did not respond to emails seeking comment.
Indian investigators raid offices of Chinese smartphone maker Vivo
An industry lobby group called the government agency’s actions “unilateral and preposterous”.
“We request your kind and urgent intervention to stop this unfortunate course of action,” Pankaj Mohindroo, the chairman of India Cellular and Electronics Association, wrote in a December 2 letter to the top bureaucrat in India’s tech ministry.
“Such unwarranted actions by enforcement agencies will diffuse the drive and motivation to encourage electronics manufacturing and exports from India.”
The political chasm between India and China widened after the two nuclear-armed nations clashed at their disputed Himalayan border in the summer of 2020. Delhi has also intensified scrutiny of Chinese companies operating in India including SAIC Motor Corp Ltd’s MG Motor India Pvt Ltd, and the local units of Xiaomi Corp. and ZTE Corp.


The blockage of Vivo’s shipments at the airport is likely to unnerve other Chinese smartphone players in India where a nationalistic government, led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, is pushing them to ramp up exports and build local supply chains.
That could threaten India’s ambitious target of exporting electronics products worth US$120 billion by the end of March 2026.
Vivo exported its first batch of India-made smartphones in early November to markets such as Saudi Arabia and Thailand.
But the latest snag could cloud Vivo’s future in the world’s second-biggest smartphone market, where the company is already under scrutiny for alleged money laundering, a claim that has yet to be proven in court.


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India holds up export of 27,000 Vivo phones in clash with China

A person walks past a Vivo store in Myanmar. The phones held up at a New Delhi airport were manufactured by Vivo Communications Technology Co.’s India unit. Photo: Bloomberg

India-Taiwan relations: Delhi wants chips, Taipei needs friends. But what about ‘one-China’?

A worker inspects a semiconductor wafer at chip manufacturing giant Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company Ltd. Photo: TSMC Handout

A worker inspects a semiconductor wafer at Taiwanese chip manufacturing giant Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company Ltd. Photo: TSMC Handout

Attendees at the 2022 India-Taiwan Industrial Collaboration Summit in New Delhi earlier this month. Photo: FICCI via Twitter

Taiwanese trade and culture representatives attend a news conference in New Delhi in 2019. Photo: Reuters

People crowd a market in New Delhi. A free-trade pact would give Taiwan greater access to Indian consumers. Photo: AFP

People pictured using their mobile phones in New Delhi. More than 75 per cent of the chips used in the Indian smartphone industry are estimated to come from Taiwan. Photo: AP

Chinese embassy slams India’s tech firm probes after Vivo, Xiaomi and Huawei investigations, fines

A man cleans a screen displaying a phone model of Chinese smartphone maker Vivo inside a shop in Ahmedabad, India, in December 2018. Photo: Reuters

India and UK’s ‘common threat perception’ of China could keep delayed trade deal on track

The pact had the potential to double trade between India and Britain, the world’s fifth and the sixth-largest economies, from the current US$29 billion. Photo: Reuters

British Home Secretary Suella Braverman had “reservations” about a possible FTA with India and “having an open border migration policy with India”. Photo: EPA-EFE

Britain’s political instability, a financial crisis and a sharp decline in the pound likely did not help negotiations for the UK-India trade pact. Photo: Bloomberg

China-India relations: as Beijing asks for one-China reassurance, New Delhi demurs. Why?

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping shake hands with BRICS leaders at a 2016 summit in Goa, India. Photo: AP

Sun Weidong, Beijing’s ambassador to India, has called for New Delhi to “openly reiterate” its support for the one-China policy. Photo: Twitter

Indian soldiers stand on a snow-covered road in the disputed Ladakh region, bordering China. Photo: AFP via Getty Images/TNS

India-China ties will only improve with mutual trust, starting with border talks

Indian army soldiers stand on a snow-covered road near the border with China. File photo: AFP via Getty Images/TNS

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi (front) and Chinese President Xi Jinping. In 2021, China was India’s single largest trading partner, and trade set new records. Photo: AP

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The shipment worth nearly US$15 million has been delayed for over a week over an alleged misdeclaration of the device models and their value
The blockage of Vivo’s shipments at the airport is likely to unnerve other Chinese smartphone players in India


The shipment worth nearly US$15 million has been delayed for over a week over an alleged misdeclaration of the device models and their value.


China-India relations

Vivo

SAIC Motor