Indian tax authorities have faulted appliance makers Haier India, Godrej & Boyce and Blue Star for failing to adequately verify documents submitted by a recycler that allegedly carried out no actual e-waste processing, according to a Reuters report citing a government notice.
The companies were also accused of wrongly claiming tax credits totalling around $714,000 for recycling services that investigators said were never actually provided.
The August 27 notice, reviewed by Reuters, details alleged lapses by the three companies and comes at a time when India is stepping up scrutiny of e-waste recycling practices. India is the world's third-largest generator of e-waste after China and the US, with a large proportion of discarded electronics handled by informal scrap dealers using environmentally harmful methods.
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“The foundational activity of procurement, receipt and processing of e-waste itself is not established,” tax officials said in the 550-page notice. According to the notice reviewed by Reuters, Haier claimed tax credits of around $367,900, while Godrej & Boyce and Blue Star claimed approximately $159,700 and $186,600, respectively. The tax authorities alleged that the companies had not independently verified whether e-waste was actually collected, transported, received, dismantled or recycled before claiming the credits.
Godrej & Boyce and Blue Star said they would respond to the notice and remained committed to complying with applicable laws. Godrej said it had followed government guidelines for recycling, while Blue Star said it had no reason to suspect irregularities at the time and had since stopped dealing with the recycler.
Haier India said it would continue to cooperate with authorities and remained committed to legal compliance.
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The recycler named in the notice is WEEE-PRO Resource Recovery Solutions, which issued compliance certificates relied upon by the companies. Indian regulations allow companies to meet mandatory recycling obligations through certificates issued by authorised recyclers.
The case has raised concerns across India's consumer electronics industry, which is valued at around $95 billion, with several companies initiating internal reviews of their recycling supply chains, according to three industry executives cited by Reuters.
India's e-waste rules require companies to recycle a specified share of the products they sell. Since 2022, companies have increasingly relied on compliance certificates from recyclers to meet these obligations.
However, the tax authorities alleged that the three companies relied on documentation without establishing whether the underlying recycling activity had actually taken place.
The notice said the companies admitted they had not independently verified the recycler's collection, transportation, receipt, dismantling or recycling activities, which investigators said was necessary to substantiate the tax credit claims.
The investigation also uncovered alleged manipulation of photographic evidence submitted to demonstrate e-waste movement. Investigators examined WhatsApp messages, documents and photographs, and even compared timestamps in images with recorded sunset times to assess whether the photographs were genuine.
In one instance, a photograph timestamped at 7:43 p.m. in 2024 — 29 minutes after sunset — showed what investigators described as bright daylight, an illuminated sky and pronounced natural shadows.
The notice also alleged that photographs showing trucks loaded with e-waste were digitally altered. An executive associated with WEEE-PRO reportedly acknowledged editing some photographs by adding clouds, while arguing that the images had not been used for commercial purposes.
“The photographic evidence was manipulated or fabricated and was utilised to falsely substantiate the alleged physical movement of e-waste,” the notice said.
The episode follows a government warning issued in January over “fraudulent certification” by spurious recyclers. Tax authorities are now widening their investigation into the sector to examine whether similar practices may have been used elsewhere.
One senior tax official told Reuters that authorities were analysing the alleged modus operandi and would ask field officers to investigate further.
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