Hyundai denies tax evasion, will go to court

India's second-largest car maker Hyundai Motor India Ltd on Sunday refuted all charges of tax evasion imposed on it by the directorate of revenue intelligence (DRI), adding that it would legally challenge the show-casue notice served by the DRI.

The DRI had last week issued the notice to Hyundai for evading tax to the tune of ₹266 crore over the last five years on components imported by the company for manufacturing cars at its factory in Sriperumbudur near Chennai.

'HMIL totally denies the allegations of resorting to mis-declaration of the value of components imported by it for the manufacture of passenger cars or having suppressed information of the same,' the Korean auto maker said in a statement. 'Hyundai imports all the components based on transaction value and the relevant duty has been paid to the appropriate authorities with full documentation. Therefore any allegation that HMIL is resorting to mis- declaration is false, baseless and unfounded... (it) would be challenged under the due process of law in the appropriate forum.'

Hyundai said the disputed sum represented a mere 2% of the total import value of approximately ₹14,000 crore in the last 5 years. Further it said it has filed every single invoice, agreement and bill of entry with the customs department as per prescribed procedures that leave no scope for suppression of any kind.

'Currently we export cars to over 140 countries and have earned over $8.5 billion (₹38,250 crore) in export revenue over the past ten years,' the statement added. 'Hyundai has paid over ₹26, 800 crore in central and state taxes since it started operations in India.'