ED slaps Rs 3.44 crore penalty on BBC WS India; fines 3 administrators

The ED launched a FEMA probe in opposition to the BBC just a few months after the income-tax division carried out a survey operation on the information organisation’s workplace in Delhi in February 2023.

BBC WS India, which is a 100 per cent FDI firm, was engaged in importing/streaming information and present affairs by way of digital media however “didn’t” cut back their FDI to 26 per cent, and stored it at 100 per cent in “gross violation” of the rules issued by the federal government of India, sources mentioned.

The press observe 4 issued by the Division for Promotion of Trade and Inside Commerce (DPIIT) on 18 September 2019, stipulates a 26 per cent FDI cap for digital media underneath the federal government approval route, they mentioned.

The full penalty levied on BBC WS India stands at Rs 3,44,48,850, together with a tremendous of Rs 5,000 for day-after-day after 15.10.2021 until the date of compliance for violation of the provisions of FEMA, 1999, the sources mentioned. Three BBC administrators — Giles Antony Hunt, Indu Shekhar Sinha and Paul Michael Gibbons — have every been fined Rs 1,14,82,950 for his or her roles in “overseeing” firm operations through the interval of contravention, they mentioned.

The Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT), the executive physique for the I-T division, had mentioned in a press release after the 2023 survey that the revenue and income proven by varied BBC group entities had been “not commensurate” with the dimensions of their operations in India, and that tax has not been paid on sure remittances by its international entities.

The BBC, after the I-T motion, had mentioned it’s going to “proceed to cooperate with the authorities and hope the issues are resolved as quickly as potential”.

With PTI inputs