BBC survey: Income, profits not commensurate with India ops, says CBDT

The statement by CBDT accused the company of "dilatory tactics" during the course of the 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 Friday, 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).

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 statement alleged various tax-linked irregularities against the London-headquartered company and accused it of using “dilatory tactics” during the course of the survey.

“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," it said. The BBC, after tax teams left their premises on Thursday, said they will “continue to cooperate with the authorities and hope matters are resolved as soon as possible”.