IT survey in Delhi, Mumbai offices of BBC; UK government ‘closely monitoring’ | 10 points

Income Tax Department officials on Tuesday “surveyed” the British Broadcasting Corporation’s offices in Delhi and Mumbai for over 10 hours, in view of the BBC’s “willful non-compliance with transfer pricing rules and vast diversion of its profits”. .

As the crackdown began, a political furore ensued, with the ruling BJP accusing the British public broadcaster of “toxic reporting” and the opposition criticizing the move.

Notably, this comes weeks after the BBC aired a two-part documentary, “India: The Modi Question”.

Here’s a look at 10 key developments in the BBC case:

1. The crackdown began around 12 noon when officials from the IT department reached the BBC’s offices in Delhi’s Kasturba Gandhi Marg and Mumbai’s upmarket Santacruz area. BBC staff were asked to keep their mobile phones at a designated place inside the premises and cooperate.
2. The BBC issued a statement saying it was co-operating fully with the tax authorities. “The Income Tax officials are currently at offices in New Delhi and Mumbai and we are cooperating fully. We hope this situation can be resolved as soon as possible,” the BBC’s press office said on Twitter.
3. Reacting to the “survey”, the ruling BJP accused the BBC of doing “venomous” reporting against India. The party’s national spokesperson Gaurav Bhatia rejected the Congress’s criticism of the IT crackdown and said the government agency should be allowed to do its job. Describing BBC as the most corrupt organization in the world, he said that the Congress should remember that the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi had also banned the broadcaster.
4. Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh used a Hindi idiom to attack the government, “Vinaash kale, viparita buddhi” (When doomsday strikes, a person’s intellect works against his interest). He said, “Here we are demanding JPC on Adani issue but government is after BBC, destruction black opposite intelligence.”
5. the editors guild of India (EGI) said it was “deeply concerned” about the income tax surveys and called it continued trend of using government agencies to intimidate and harass media outlets critical of the ruling establishment. In a statement, it said great care and sensitivity must be exercised. All such investigations have been shown so as not to curtail the rights of journalists and media organisations.
6. British government sources said today that the UK is “closely monitoring” the situation. However, no official statement related to this has come from the UK government yet.
7. The Income Tax Department issued a statement saying, “Today, the Income Tax officials conducted a survey at the premises of BBC in Delhi, in view of the willful non-compliance of transfer pricing rules of BBC and the huge diversion of its profits. It is relevant to note that as per the provisions of the Income Tax Act, the above exercise carried out by the tax authorities is termed as “survey” and not search/raids. Such surveys are regularly conducted and should not be confused with the nature of searches/raids.”
8. The IT department said, “In the case of BBC, the above rules are not being followed consistently over the years. As a result of that, several notices have been issued to the BBC. However, the BBC has continued to be defiant and non-compliant and has significantly diverted its profits. The main focus of these surveys has been on price rigging for unauthorized benefits including tax benefits. These surveys have been carried out because of the BBC’s consistent non-compliance with the rules, of which it is a repeated offender.
9. The Supreme Court last week dismissed a plea seeking a complete ban on the BBC in India in the wake of the controversial documentary, terming the plea as “wholly misplaced” and “absolutely meritless”.
10. On 21 January, the government issued instructions to block several YouTube videos and Twitter posts sharing links to the documentary.

(With inputs from PTI)

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