Guwahati: The income tax (I-T) department continued its investigation at the BBC’s headquarters in Delhi and Mumbai on Wednesday.
Given the BBC’s “deliberate non-compliance” with the Transfer Pricing Rules and its significant profit diversion, the I-T department conducted a survey at the BBC’s offices in Delhi and Mumbai on Tuesday. For the poll, the investigators showed up yesterday at the BBC headquarters in Mumbai’s Kalina Santacruz and the national capital’s KG Marg.
According to reports, the BBC has been consistently breaking the aforementioned standards for years. Numerous notices have been sent to the BBC as a result of the same. According to insiders, the BBC has consistently been stubborn and non-compliant and has largely diverted its income.
Reportedly, the tax authorities’ aforementioned activity is classified as a “survey” and not a “search” or “raid” under the terms of the Income Tax Act. According to authorities, such surveys are often carried out and should not be mistaken for raids or searches.
These studies’ main objective is to investigate pricing manipulation for unauthorised benefits, including tax advantages. These surveys have been conducted as a result of BBC’s repeated infractions of the standards.
In this case, sources said BBC has been, “non-compliant under transfer pricing rules; persistent and deliberately violative of transfer pricing norms; and deliberately diverted a significant amount of the profits and have not followed the arm’s length arrangement in the case of allocation of profit.”
Accordingly, the surveys have been conducted with a view to investigating BBC’s violation of the Transfer Pricing Rules and its diversion of profits.
Following the I-T department poll, insiders in the UK government claimed they are closely watching the developments.
“We are closely monitoring reports of tax surveys conducted at the offices of the BBC in India,” UK government said.
BBC has stated that it is assisting the income tax authorities with its survey, which is being carried out in its offices in New Delhi and Mumbai.
“The Income Tax Authorities are currently at the BBC offices in New Delhi and Mumbai and we are fully cooperating,” the BBC News Press Team said in a statement.
The change occurs a few weeks after the BBC aired the contentious documentary “India: The Modi Question” on Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Multiple YouTube videos and Twitter posts sharing links to the divisive BBC documentary on PM Modi had been ordered to be blocked by the Center.
The federal government was ordered to submit original papers pertaining to its decision to obstruct the BBC programme by the Supreme Court on February 3.