Lava May Give A Fresh Lease Of Life To Nokia’s Chennai Plant

Domestic smartphone maker Lava may buy Nokia 's Chennai handset factory, which once one of the world's largest mobile manufacturing units, as per a report published in The Economic Times (ET).

It is worth noting that a team of Lava officials have already carried out assessment of the Nokia plant. In mid-December, the Noida-based company will make a proposal to Nokia.

However, it has been reported that Nokia’s tax issue needs to be resolved before a final deal can take place. Those of you who are not aware, in March 2014, the Tamil Nadu government, served Rs 2,400 crore tax notice on Nokia citing a reason that the firm had also sold products from the Chennai plant in the domestic market, instead of shipping them overseas.

In another tax case, the apex court had ordered Nokia India on March 14 to give a Rs 3,500 crore guarantee before it transfers the plant to tech giant Microsoft. On April 25, 2014, the Nokia-Microsoft deal was completed. Owing to legal issues related to tax demand by the Indian government, the Chennai facility could not be transferred to Microsoft. It’s important to note that the tax row is currently in court.