The tax "survey" at BBC's Delhi and Mumbai offices went on for three days
The income tax department today said the nearly three-day "survey" at the BBC's offices in Delhi and Mumbai broadly looked into a mismatch between the income/profits of the broadcaster's group firms and their scale of operations in India.
Here are 5 key points from the tax office's statement on BBC
"The survey revealed that despite substantial consumption of content in various Indian languages (apart from English), the income/profits shown by various group entities is not commensurate with the scale of operations in India."
"During the course of the survey, 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."
"... Services of seconded employees have been utilised for which reimbursement has been made by the Indian entity to the foreign entity concerned. Such remittance was also liable to be subject to withholding tax, which has not been done... Survey has thrown up several discrepancies and inconsistencies with regard to transfer pricing documentation."
"Survey operation has resulted in unearthing of crucial evidences by way of statement of employees, digital evidences and documents which will be further examined in due course. It is pertinent to state that statements of only those employees were recorded whose role was crucial including those connected to, primarily, finance, content development and other production related functions."
"Even though the department exercised due care to record statements of only key personnel, it was observed that dilatory tactics were employed including in the context of producing documents/agreements sought. Despite such stance of the group, the survey operation was conducted in a manner so as to facilitate continued regular media/channel activity."
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