BENGALURU: The Uber Files' expose by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) suggests that Uber came under intense scrutiny from RBI, Central Consumer Protection Authority (CCPA), and Indian tax authorities.
The very year it launched in India (2014), the ride-hailing company was served with a service tax notice in Mumbai. Axel Martinez, then VP and treasurer of Uber, is said to have written to the firm’s top brass: “Authorities want Uber to open their books, otherwise, we are facilitating fraud. They have summoned RG (Ryan Graves, then senior vice president, global operations at Uber) & TK (then CEO Travis Kalanick). Penalties and warrants for arrest are next.” The note went on to say, “Negotiate with the tax authority the ability to collect and remit payments on behalf of our drivers, while limiting our liability.”
The ICIJ files also showed that in 2014, an email sent from Manash K Neog of Chase India, a Delhi-based public policy and advocacy advisory firm, to Mark Fielding, consultant with FIPRA, a Brussels-based firm that advises Uber on policy, said: “We can offer Uber to deal with RBI (the central bank of India) and other related regulatory bodies here. This issue can get bigger from here for Uber.”
Last year, the Director General of Goods and Services Tax Intelligence (DGGI) investigated Uber India and claimed tax liability outstanding of Rs 800 crore. The CCPA has served notice on Uber for a range of deficiencies, including not providing a customer care number, unreasonable cancellation charges, and charging different fares on the same route for different users.
The Uber Files is a set of leaked confidential information accessed by The Guardian and shared with ICIJ. It includes 124,000 internal emails, text messages and documents from Uber. Mark MacGann, a lobbyist who worked for Uber between 2014 and 2016, was the whistleblower who provided The Guardian with the records. “I regret being part of a group of people which massaged the facts to earn the trust of drivers, of consumers and of political elites,” he told The Guardian.
