The Enforcement Directorate on Friday imposed ₹ 3.44 crore penalty on British Broadcaster BBC World Service India for Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA) violations.
Additionally, a fine of ₹5,000 per day after October 15, 2021, till the date of compliance was also levied upon the company.
An investigation was opened into BBC in April 2023 under the FEMA Act, two months after tax officials raided its offices in Delhi and Mumbai.
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BBC, which launched a new company for Indian language services in December 2023, was issued a show-cause notice for failing to reduce foreign ownership in the company to the permitted limit of 26 per cent.
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Reportedly, three directors of the company--Giles Antony Hunt, Indu Shekhar Singha and Paul Micheal Gibbons--have each been fined ₹ 1,14,82,950 for their roles in overseeing company operations during the period.
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The Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT), the administrative body for the IT department, in a statement after the 2023 survey said that the income and profits shown by various BBC group entities were "not commensurate" with the scale of their operations in India, and that tax has not been paid on certain remittances by its foreign entities.
It was following the release of a BBC documentary about Prime Minister Narendra Modi's leadership during the Gujarat riots of 2002. At least 1,000 people were killed in the riots, most of them Muslims.
The Indian government dismissed the allegations raised in the documentary terming it as "propaganda". The airing of the documentary was blocked on social media as well.
