Indian Companies Supplying US Technology To Huawei Will Be Penalised : Govt

The Indian government has said any Indian company supplying US-developed technologies Huawei will face penal action. Answering a question in Lok Sabha, the minister of IT and Communications, Ravi Shankar Prasad said as the US has put a ban on US companies not to deal with Huawei on matters of technology, doing so by Indian entities would invite penal action.

"Any Indian company which will act as a supplier of US-origin equipment, software or technology to Huawei and its affiliates in Entity List could be subject to penal action/sanction under US regulations," the minister said in a written reply in the Lower House.

It can be recalled that the US government has put Huawei and its affiliates in the Entity List, a list of firms that US firms should not be doing business with, in the Month of May this year. If any company wishes to do business with the firms listed in the Entity List needs prior approval or prior export license from the US government.

Though the terms and conditions of Entity List related to Huawei was eased a bit during the US President Donald Trump's meeting with his Chinese counterpart last week, the sanction has not yet fully lifted.

Answering a separate question related to 5G, the telecom minister also informed that while Indian Telecom operators are readying themselves for 5G trial, the government has received proposals from six companies including Huawei and ZTE. However, it has not been decided if the government will allow these two firms to take part in the 5G trials in India.

While the sanction has been placed by the US, it has put the Indian Telecom operators in a tight spot as they are readying for 5G. Huawei is the world's largest telecom equipment company and its solutions are cheaper than its near rivals like Nokia and Ericsson. Experts believe that rolling out 5G infrastructure in the country will highly impacted if Huawei is not allowed to take part in supplying its equipment and solutions to Indian telcos.