ByteDance’s Indian bank account has been blocked, and now even salaries can’t be paid?

The follow-up to TikTok’s complete ban in India is not over yet. The bank account of its parent company ByteDance has been blocked by the Indian government again. Now it can’t even pay employees’ salaries and has even taken the case to court. What is going on?

According to Reuters, in mid-March this year , the Indian government believed that tax evasion occurred in the online advertising transactions between ByteDance's Indian branch and its Singapore branch, so it ordered the blocking of ByteDance's Citibank and HSBC accounts.

People familiar with the matter revealed that Indian authorities have also instructed Citibank and HSBC to prevent ByteDance from withdrawing funds from any other bank account linked to its tax identification number. ByteDance's lawyers said that the company's four bank accounts have been frozen, which will have a serious impact on the company's normal operations.

The Indian tax department said the order was issued after carefully reviewing the company's office documents last year and questioning ByteDance's advertising and other transactions. ByteDance expressed dissatisfaction and asked the court to revoke the blocking order to prevent the company from suffering greater economic losses due to business stagnation.

According to ByteDance, it has about 1,300 employees in India , most of whom serve its overseas business, including doing work such as content review. Although there is only about $10 million in funds in ByteDance’s banned bank account , the account ban order is an abuse of legal process and will make it difficult for the company to pay its employees’ salaries, office rent, and taxes.

After ByteDance filed a lawsuit in court, the Bombay High Court decided to hear the case on April 6 .

ByteDance said in a statement on Wednesday that it was confident in its legal position and looked forward to a fair ruling from the court.

Last year, the Indian government announced a decision to ban more than 200 apps developed by Chinese manufacturers on the grounds of protecting national security and sovereign interests . TikTok was one of them. The market gaps left after these apps were banned were occupied by local Indian and European and American companies, leaving Chinese companies with only the choice of transformation or withdrawal.

It is understood that ByteDance has laid off a number of employees in its Indian branch in January this year and plans to sell TikTok's Indian business to its local Indian competitor Glance.

Data shows that Galnce's daily active users have reached 115 million, making it the largest content consumption platform in the Indian market after Facebook and YouTube, surpassing Instagram.

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