BBC says India probing its tax structure

New Delhi: India is looking into the BBC’s tax structure, the British news organisation said in an internal memo on Wednesday, as officials searched its premises in New Delhi and Mumbai for a second day.

A senior Indian government official said the income tax survey, which began on Tuesday, was not vindictive or “done out of a sense of pique”.

The BBC was served tax notices in the past but the organisation had not provided a convincing response to tax authorities, Kanchan Gupta, Senior Adviser at the Ministry of Information & Broadcasting, told Times Now news channel.

“The Income Tax Department is conducting a survey of the BBC’s tax status and affairs in India. We understand officers from the department may wish to speak to members of staff about the BBC in India,” Liliane Landor, director of the BBC World Service, said in the note sent to staff and reviewed by Reuters on Wednesday.

A spokesperson for the BBC did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Reuters.

“Questions about the BBC’s structure, activities, organisation, and operations in India are within the remit of the investigation and should be answered,” Landor said in the note.

India’s Income Tax Department has so far declined to comment on the reason for the search.