The Enforcement Directorate on Thursday has registered a case against British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) India under the Foreign Exchange Management Act 1999 (FEMA).

The ED has registered the case about two weeks ago for foreign direct investment violations by the media house.

Reportedly, as part of the investigation, the central agency has so far questioned six employees from the company, asked executives to record their statements and has called for relevant documents.

The move comes in the backdrop of the Income Tax department surveying BBC India office in Delhi and Mumbai in the month of February.

The survey revealed that income or the profits shown by BBC’s various entities “is not commensurate with the scale of operations in India” and evidence has emerged which indicates “the company has not paid taxes on certain remittances”, the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) said in a statement in February.

Besides, IT sleuths had found several discrepancies in the transfer pricing documentation of the BBC.

 “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 CBDT stated then.

According to the IT investigation, evidence has been gathered about the orgainsation’s operations during the survey, which shows that “tax has not been paid on certain remittances which have not been disclosed as income in India by the foreign entities of the group.”

“The survey operations also revealed that services of seconded employees have been utilized for which reimbursement has been made by the Indian entity to the foreign entity concerned. Such remittance was also liable to be subject to withholding tax which has not been done,” CBDT statement said.

(With inputs from Hindustan Times)