The Indian government has ordered Samsung and its Indian executives to pay a fine of $601 million for tax evasion on imports of key telecom equipment. This is one of the heaviest fines imposed by India in recent times. The fine was announced in an official order issued to Samsung and its Indian executives.

Samsung, through its network division, imports telecom equipment into India. This includes some critical transmission components used in mobile towers. When these components are imported, they have to pay import duty at the rate of 10% or 20%.

The government alleges that Samsung evaded taxes by misclassifying imported products and not paying these duties. That is, it imported products that were subject to high taxes under a lower tax category. These were then sold to Mukesh Ambani-owned telecom company Reliance Jio.

Samsung's total profit in India in 2023 was $955 million. A large part of this profit is now being paid as a penalty.