Tax authorities say income and profits of company not commensurate with ops in India over BBC survey

The income and profits shown by various BBC group entities are not commensurate with the scale of their operations in India and tax has not been paid on certain remittances by its foreign entities, the income tax authorities said, a day after they ended a three-day-long survey operation against the British media organisation.

The Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) issued a statement without identifying the company but said the survey was conducted at the business premises of group entities of a prominent international media company which is engaged in the business of development of content in English, Hindi and various other Indian languages, advertisement sales and market support services, etc.

Officials said the statement pertains to the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC). Sources in the BBC said they will respond appropriately to any “direct formal communication received from the tax department.

The I-T department had launched the survey exercise on February 14 at BBC offices in Delhi and Mumbai and it ended after about 60 hours on Thursday night. The CBDT is the administrative authority for the tax department.

The survey revealed that despite substantial consumption of content in various Indian languages (apart from English), the income/profits shown by various group entities (of BBC) is not commensurate with the scale of operations in India.

The department gathered several evidences pertaining to the operation of the organisation which 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 CBDT said.