Edited By: Shankhyaneel Sarkar
Last Updated: February 22, 2023, 08:40 IST
David Rutley, top UK foreign office official, defended the BBC while discussing the income tax survey conducted in its India offices (Image: Reuters)
During a session of the House of Commons, a handful of MPs questioned David Rutley, top UK foreign office official, on why his dept was silent following the IT raids
The UK government and the party in opposition, the Labour Party, strongly defended the BBC and expressed concern regarding the income tax surveys conducted on the media giant during a session in the UK parliament.
David Rutley, the parliamentary undersecretary of state for the UK foreign, commonwealth and development office (FCDO), took questions from Democratic Unionist Party’s (DUP) Jim Shannon, Conservative leaders Sir Julian Lewis and Bob Blackman, Labour Party’s Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi, Afzal Khan and Hilary Benn, Scottish National Party’s (SNP) Martin Docherty-Hughes and Drew Hendry, on the income tax raids conducted at BBC’s offices in New Delhi and Mumbai.
Shannon, the DUP leader, accused the UK foreign office of being silent on the developments. Some of the other lawmakers also chimed in with leader from Northern Ireland.
“We stand up for the BBC. We fund the BBC. We think the BBC World Service is vital. We want the BBC to have that editorial freedom. It criticises us, it criticises the Labour party, and it has that freedom that we believe is so important,” Rutley said.
“That freedom is key, and we want to be able to communicate its importance to our friends across the world, including the Government in India,” Rutley responded in response to the questions raised by his fellow parliamentarians during “Urgent Question” debate.
Conservative MP Julian Lewis and Labour MP Fabian Hamilton said the developments were “deeply worrying”.
“In any democracy the media must have the ability to criticise and scrutinise political leaders without fear of repercussions, and that clearly applies in this situation,” Hamilton said.
The Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) on February 17 said that the income shown by the media giant’s group entities is not commensurate with the scale of operations in India, a day after authorities conducted a three-day survey on British-media organisation’s Mumbai and New Delhi offices.
The statement said the survey action was undertaken under section 133A of the Income-tax Act, 1961 at the business premises of the group entities.
“The survey revealed that despite substantial consumption of content in various Indian languages (apart from English), the income/profits shown by various group entities is not commensurate with the scale of operations in India,” the statement read.
The CBDT said there were several evidences related to the operation of the organisation which showed that taxes were not paid on certain remittances and which have not been disclosed as income in India by the foreign entities of the group.
(with inputs from Shalinder Wangu)
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