The Enforcement Directorate on Friday imposed a penalty of Rs 3.44 crore on British broadcaster BBC for alleged foreign exchange violations. The agency has also slapped a fine of Rs 1.14 crore each on three BBC India directors.
The agency’s move comes almost two years after it had registered a case against BBC World Services – the Indian arm of the British Broadcasting Corporation- under the Foreign Exchange Management Act. The FEMA case, registered in April 2023, followed “surveys” by the income tax authorities of the BBC’s offices in Mumbai and Delhi in February 2023.
In an adjudication order issued against the broadcasting giant on Friday, ED has also levied a penalty of Rs 5,000 per day from 15 October 2021 till the date of compliance with foreign direct investment norms.
The Indian Express quoted a BBC spokesperson saying: “At this stage, neither BBC World Service India nor its directors have received any adjudication order from the Enforcement Directorate.” The company will review any order it receives and consider the next steps, the spokesperson added.
In its case against the broadcaster, ED had alleged that BBC World Service India – a 100 percent FDI company engaged in uploading/streaming news through digital media – failed to reduce it foreign direct investment violating Indian government regulations, The Hindu reported. The agency noted that FDI for digital media was capped at 26 percent.
“Directors Giles Antony Hunt, Indu Shekhar Sinha, and Paul Michael Gibbons, have each been fined ₹1,14,82,950 for their roles in overseeing company operations during the period of contravention,” the newspaper reported citing an ED source.
The February 2023 income tax “surveys” followed the release of a BBC documentary on the 2002 Gujarat riots titled “India: The Modi Question.” Within days of its release, the Indian government had blocked the airing of the documentary and ordered YouTube and X to take down links containing clips from the documentary for “undermining the sovereignty and integrity of India”.
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