London : British government sources said in London on Tuesday that the UK is “watching closely” following income tax surveys at BBC offices in India. The Income Tax Department on Tuesday conducted a ‘survey operation’ at BBC offices in Delhi and Mumbai as part of its probe into alleged tax evasion, officials said in New Delhi. Britain’s public broadcaster BBC said it was cooperating fully with the Indian Income Tax authorities and hoped the situation would be resolved at the earliest. There has been no official statement from the British government regarding the survey, but British sources said they are ‘closely following’ the tax surveys carried out in BBC offices in India.In New Delhi, officials said the survey was carried out to examine issues related to international taxation and ‘transfer pricing’ of BBC subsidiaries. He alleged that notices were given to BBC in the past but it did not pay heed to it and did not comply. He transferred a significant portion of his profits elsewhere. The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) did not provide further details regarding the income tax survey.
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A BBC spokesperson said in a statement: ‘Income Tax officials are currently at BBC offices in New Delhi and Mumbai and we are co-operating fully. We hope that this situation will be resolved at the earliest. The surprise action came weeks after the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) aired a two-episode documentary ‘India: The Modi Question’. Meanwhile, news of the survey shocked people in Britain on Tuesday morning and the general consensus was that the crackdown was linked to a controversial BBC documentary aired last month.
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Mukulika Banerjee, lead author and academician at the London School of Economics, said, ‘Everyone is in shock and no one can be fooled. Today’s tax survey is, as it is being said, revenge for the recent BBC documentary ‘The Modi Question’. “The BBC is an independent public broadcaster, so if it makes a documentary, it is not acting at the behest of the British government,” he said. In fact, BBC journalists regularly question the British Prime Minister and all elected officials, holding them accountable for their actions.’