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The Income Tax (I-T) department on Tuesday conducted survey operations at the BBC’s offices in Delhi and Mumbai as part of an investigation into alleged tax evasion, officials said.
The action, which led to a sharp political debate with the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) accusing the BBC of “venomous reporting” and the Opposition questioning the timing of the move, comes weeks after the broadcaster aired a two-part documentary, “India: The Modi Question”, on the prime minister and the 2002 Gujarat riots.
The survey is being carried out to investigate issues related to international taxation and transfer pricing of BBC subsidiary companies, officials said. BBC had been served notices in the past but was “defiant and non-compliant” and had significantly diverted its profits, they alleged. The department is looking at documents related to the business operations of the London-headquartered broadcaster and its Indian arms, they said.
The BBC said it is fully cooperating with tax authorities. “The I-T authorities are currently at the offices in New Delhi and Mumbai and we are fully cooperating. We hope to have this situation resolved as soon as possible,” its press office tweeted.
The synchronised surprise action began at 11 am with I-T officials reaching the BBC offices in Delhi and in Mumbai and went on for several hours till late evening. BBC staffers were asked to keep their phones at a particular spot inside the premises and cooperate, officials said. Besides, some computers were seized and an unquantified number of mobile phones of those in offices were being cloned, officials said.
The Supreme Court last week dismissed a plea seeking to impose a complete ban on the BBC in India in the wake of the controversial documentary, terming the petition “entirely misconceived” and “absolutely meritless”. On January 21, the government issued directions to block multiple YouTube videos and Twitter posts sharing links to the documentary.
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The Editors Guild of India said it was “deeply concerned” about the surveys and termed it continuation of a trend of using government agencies to intimidate and harass media outlets critical of the ruling establishment.
The BJP, in its reaction, accused the BBC of unleashing “venomous” reporting against India, and alleged that its propaganda and the Congress’ agenda go together. BJP’s national spokesperson Gaurav Bhatia rejected the Congress’ criticism and said the government agency should be allowed to do its job.
A host of Opposition leaders spoke on the issue. Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge tweeted: “Time and again, there has been an assault on freedom of Press under the Modi government. This is done with brazen & unapologetic vengeance to strangulate remotely critical voices.”
(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
