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As tax ‘survey’ ends, BBC says “report without fear or favour”

February 17, 2023
Bharat Times

Tax officials walk out of Delhi BBC office after almost three days

New Delhi:

Income tax “survey” officials in the BBC’s Delhi and Mumbai offices ended on Thursday night after nearly three days of digitizing records and files. Around 10 employees, including senior editors, of the UK public broadcaster returned home after spending three days at its Kasturba Gandhi Marg office in central Delhi.

The Income Tax Department can give a statement on this on Friday. So far it has not released any statement.

Sources have said that tax officials have cloned the mobile phones of several senior BBC employees and scanned their desktops and laptops.

He said tax officials scanned the devices with keywords such as “tax”, “black money” and “benami”, which refers to money changing hands without passing through the formal banking system.

“Income Tax officials have left our offices in Delhi and Mumbai. We will continue to cooperate with the authorities and hope that the cases are resolved at the earliest. We support staff – some of whom faced lengthy questioning or they need to stay overnight.” – And their welfare is our priority. Our output has returned to normal and we remain committed to serving our viewers in India and beyond,” the BBC’s press team tweeted.

It added, “The BBC is a trusted, independent media organization and we stand by our colleagues and journalists who will continue to report without fear or favour.”

The sources said the “survey” examined possible issues relating to international taxation and transfer pricing of BBC subsidiary firms.

Some government officials and consultants have denied the tax survey was “vindictive”, saying it was related to transfer pricing rules and alleged diversion of profits. He says that tax notices have been given to the BBC in the past, but it has not given any concrete answer.

Opposition parties have criticized the timing of the tax “survey”, as officers broke into the BBC building just weeks after the BBC ran a documentary on Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the 2002 Gujarat riots.

The ruling BJP hit back, claiming the BBC was running “poisonous reporting”.

The Supreme Court last week rejected a request to ban the BBC in India. The court said the request was “wholly misplaced” and “absolutely without merit”.