India said to have blocked bank accounts of Chinese TikTok owner ByteDance
- ByteDance has mounted a court challenge against the Indian government’s directive, sources said
- The move comes after India banned short video-sharing app TikTok and hundreds of other Chinese apps
Indian authorities have blocked at least two of ByteDance’s bank accounts for alleged tax evasion, prompting it to ask a court to quash the directive that it fears will hit its operations, two sources with direct knowledge told Reuters.
ByteDance in January cut its Indian workforce after New Delhi decided to retain a ban on its popular video app TikTok, first prohibited last year following a border clash between India and China.
China has repeatedly criticised India’s move and said it suspected it was against WTO rules.
ByteDance, which issued a statement contesting the Indian decision, has around 1,300 employees in India, most of whom service its overseas operations, including work on activities, such as content moderation.
In mid-March, authorities ordered two of ByteDance India’s bank accounts in Citibank and HSBC to be blocked because of alleged evasion of certain taxes in online advertising dealings between the ByteDance unit in India and its parent entity in Singapore, TikTok Pte Ltd, the two sources said.
The authorities also directed Citibank and HSBC to prevent ByteDance India from withdrawing funds from any other bank accounts linked to its tax identification number, the first source said.
In a court filing, which is likely to be heard this week at a High Court in the financial capital Mumbai, ByteDance India has said that although it had only about US$10 million in its accounts, the blocking decision was an abuse of the legal process and would make it hard for it to pay salaries and taxes, the source added.
Both the sources declined to be identified as the details of the bank freeze and company’s court challenge were not public.