The Enforcement Directorate has registered a FEMA case against news broadcaster BBC India for foreign exchange violations, official sources said Thursday.
The federal probe agency has also called for documents and the recording of statements of some company executives under provisions of the Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA), they said.
The probe is essentially looking at purported foreign direct investment (FDI) violations by the company, they said. The moves comes in the backdrop of the Income-Tax department surveying BBC office premises in Delhi in February.
The Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT), the administrative body for the I-T department, had then said the income and profits shown by various BBC group entities were “not commensurate” with the scale of their operations in India and tax has not been paid on certain remittances by its foreign entities.
The tax department’s action came weeks after the British broadcaster had on January 17 released a documentary on the 2002 Gujarat riots titled “India: The Modi Question”.
On January 20, the Central Government ordered YouTube and Twitter to take down links sharing the documentary, with officials saying it was found to be “undermining the sovereignty and integrity of India” and had “the potential to adversely impact” the country’s “friendly relations with foreign states” and “public order within the country”.
