India's Income Tax Department has claimed it has uncovered irregularities in the accounting books of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) following a three-day survey widely criticised as retribution for an unflattering documentary on Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
In allegations that come weeks after the British public broadcaster aired the two-part series on PM Modi and the 2002 Gujarat riots, the Income Tax Department said that income and profits disclosed by the BBC's various units were "not commensurate with the scale of operations in India".
Without naming the BBC, it said the department had gathered "several evidences (sic)" and was still in the process of going through statements of employees, digital files and documents of a "prominent international media company".
Its findings "indicate that tax has not been paid on certain remittances which have not been disclosed as income in India by the foreign entities of the group", the tax department claimed.
"The survey has also thrown up several discrepancies and inconsistencies with regard to transfer pricing documentation," it alleged, referring to the practises when one arm of a multinational corporation pays another for goods, services or intellectual property.
The department also accused BBC staff of employing "dilatory tactics" or efforts to delay an investigation.
"Despite such stance of the group, the survey operation was conducted in a manner so as to facilitate continued regular media/channel activity," the tax department said in a statement.
The BBC is yet to respond to the charges. Last evening, after the 60-hour survey at its offices in Delhi and Mumbai ended, the company said it will continue to cooperate with the authorities.
It said the priority for it now was to support its staff, many of whom have had to stay overnight in the offices during the enquiries, and that it will continue to report without "fear or favour".
The BBC documentary did not air in India but provoked a furious response from the government, which dismissed its contents as "hostile propaganda".
Authorities used information technology laws to ban the sharing of links to the programme to stop its spread on social media.
Calling the BBC the "most corrupt" corporation, Gaurav Bhatia, a BJP spokesman, said the survey was lawful and the timing had nothing to do with the documentary's broadcast.
"If you have been following the law of the country, if you have nothing to hide, why be afraid of an action that is according to the law," he told reporters.
However, according to the prominent New York-based watchdog Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), at least four Indian outlets that have critically reported on the government have been raided by tax officers or financial crimes investigators in the past two years.
India has also fallen 10 spots to 150th on the World Press Freedom Index, compiled by Reporters Without Borders, since PM Modi took office in 2014.
Journalists have long faced harassment, legal threats and intimidation for their work in India, but more criminal cases are being lodged against reporters than ever, according to the civil society group Free Speech Collective.
Criminal complaints were issued against a record 67 journalists in 2020, the latest year for which figures are available, it said.
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