UK raises BBC issue with India

During a bilateral meeting with External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on March 1, UK Foreign Secretary James Cleverly brought up the BBC tax issue. BBC offices in India were surveyed last month as part of an investigation by Income Tax authorities, days after India had blocked its documentary on Prime Minister Narendra Modi. In its official statement on the IT ‘surveys’, the Union finance ministry had said the exercise had revealed that the “income/profits shown by various group entities are not commensurate with the scale of operations in India”. “He was firmly told that all entities operating in India must comply fully with relevant laws and regulations,” a source said about the UK foreign secretary who is in India to attend the two-day G20 Foreign Ministers’ Meeting that will be held in Delhi.