Renault and alliance partner Nissan Motor Co. have halted plans to invest 50 billion rupees ($756 million) in India because of payments the companies say they are owed by the Tamil Nadu state government.
The automakers, which jointly own a plant in Chennai in Tamil Nadu, have asked the central government to intervene to help them recover 19 billion rupees in investment promotion subsidies and 27 billion rupees of tax refunds, the newspaper reported Saturday.
The report cited a letter written by Renault Nissan Automotive India to Amitabh Kant, secretary of the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion in New Delhi, Bloomberg reports.
Ghazal Javed, a spokesman for Nissan's India unit, and Jatin Aggarwal, a spokesman for Renault's India unit, did not respond to messages requesting comment.
Earlier this month, the two automakers said they plan to cut several hundred jobs in India and reduce production at the Chennai plant.
The plant builds Renault, Nissan and Datsun brand vehicles, including the Duster SUV and Lodgy minivan sold under the Renault brand, along with the Nissan Micra hatchback and Terrano SUV.
The shock announcement comes after Renault recently announced their new Kwid low-cost small SUV vehicle for the Indian domestic market. Renault previously said that the Kwid would be their main vehicle for the Indian market, but did not announce where the car would be produced.
