Tamil Nadu Government has issued notices of Rs 2,400 crore to Nokia company demanding taxes since 2006 on the charges of selling its devices in the domestic market instead of exporting even as the company termed the tax department act as "absurd".
"Nokia today filed a writ to the Madras High Court to contest a claim from the Tamil Nadu tax department, which has moved to assess sales tax on the export of devices from the company's Chennai facility", the company said on Friday. Nokia said it considers the claim to be completely "without merit" and counter to domestic tax laws.
"In India, exports are by law exempt from tax, and Nokia has proved consistently that devices produced at Chennai are exported abroad. Indeed, the company has been regularly assessed and audited by the tax authorities since 2006 without incident", it said
"It is absurd that the Tamil Nadu tax authority is now claiming that devices made in Chennai were not exported and were instead sold domestically in India. We contend that this allegation has no basis in reality whatsoever; it could easily be rebuffed by a check of documentation provided to various governmental departments including Customs", the company said.
Government sources said that the tax department has issued a tax notice of around Rs 2,400 crore to Nokia demanding tax for three years-2009-10, 2010-11 and 2011-12.