NEW DELHI: India’s financial crime fighting agency has fined British broadcaster BBC 314,510 pounds ($397,980) for alleged foreign exchange violations in the South Asian nation, three government sources said.

The agency, India’s Enforcement Directorate (ED), opened an investigation into the BBC in April 2023 under the Foreign Exchange Management Act, two months after tax authorities searched the broadcaster’s offices in Delhi and Mumbai.

The ED conducts investigations into suspected contraventions of India’s Foreign Exchange Management Act and can “adjudicate and impose penalties” on those found guilty, according to its website. The BBC, which launched a new company for Indian language services in Dec 2023, was issued a show-cause notice earlier that year for failing to reduce foreign ownership in the company to the permitted limit of 26per cent, the sources said. As a result, the broadcaster has been fined 314,510 pounds, along with a fine for every day since Oct 15, 2021 for violations.

Additionally, three directors of the company have each been fined 104,836 pounds for their roles in overseeing operations during the period of contravention, the sources added. The tax raids in Feb 2023 followed the release of a BBC documentary about Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s leadership of the state of Gujarat during riots in 2002.

Published in Dawn, February 22nd, 2025