The tax department in its first official statement regarding the surprise survey operations carried out at the BBC offices said that tax has not been paid on certain remittances that have not been disclosed as income in India by the foreign entities of the group.
The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) offices in the national capital and Mumbai were the site of marathon survey operations by the income tax department. An acrimonious verbal battle between the BJP, which is in power, and the opposition parties was brought on by the survey. Despite significant usage of content in Indian languages other than English, the survey found that group entities' income and earnings did not correspond to the scope of their operations in India.
Dilatory tactics employed, says I-T dept
It claimed that these differences are related, among other things, to a lack of suitable Function, Asset and Risk (FAR) analysis, the wrong usage of comparables that can be used to estimate the proper Arms Length Pricing (ALP), and insufficient revenue apportionment. It was made apparent that those personnel whose roles were vital, such as those primarily related to finance, content development, and other production-related duties, had their statements recorded.
I-T survey had come weeks after a massive controversy over a documentary by the British state-funded broadcaster on the 2002 Gujarat riots.
BBC survey amounts to intimidation
The Brussels-based International Federation of Journalists stated that it was "extremely disturbed" about the income tax "surveys" conducted on the BBC offices in New Delhi and Mumbai. Its statement said, “The search of BBC offices by income tax authorities a few weeks after the broadcasting of a documentary in the UK critical of the Indian PM amounts to intimidation. We are deeply concerned by these attempts to silence critical reporting and the consequences it may have on independent journalism in the country.”