India: Volkswagen Risks Billions of Dollars in Fines for Tax Evasion
India's GDP growth was 5.4% in the second quarter of the fiscal year
More trouble for German automaker Volkswagen, which has found itself in the crosshairs of India’s tax authorities. According to the German media, which cites an Indian customs document, Volkswagen “risks paying a billion-dollar fine in India for tax evasion.” According to Indian authorities, Volkswagen has failed to pay duties on car imports totaling nearly $1.4 billion since 2012, willfully violating Indian customs rules.
The German company, which has already been fined more than $16 billion in the USA, at home, in Australia, and many other countries around the world for falsifying data on air pollution caused by its cars, responded to media inquiries on the subject: “Volkswagen is a responsible organization that fully complies with all global and local laws.”
According to the Indian press, “there is no smoke without fire,” and having lost the Chinese market – the other day the German company sold one of its plants in China – Volkswagen risks losing the Indian market as well. That would be a major blow indeed: India’s real gross domestic product grew 5.4% in the July-September quarter, the second quarter of the 2024-25 fiscal year that began in April.
Meanwhile, the eight “core” Indian industries – coal, crude oil, natural gas, petroleum products, fertilizers, steel, cement, and electric power – recorded an overall production growth of 3.1% year-on-year in October 2024.
