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The BBC World Service has reportedly been fined, by the Enforcement Directorate, a penalty of ₹3.44 crore on the June 23rd of 2023, claiming infringement of Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA) in the year of 1999. The firm was instructed to compensate a penalty of ₹5,000 from supressing non-interesting infringement act from October 15, 2021, until all deviations are mended.
Moreover, three directors, namely, Giles Antony Hunt, Indu Shekhar Sinha, and Michael Gibbons, have all three have infringed with the supervision of operations Law and Order System and Inter-state commerce Act and have each been fined ₹1.15 crore for breach of duty of tenderness.
‘The Directorate of Enforcement has issued an adjudication order today, levying a penalty of ₹3,44,48,850 on BBC WS India along with a fine of 5000 per day after 15 October, 2021,’ An ED high rank officer’s statement according to news18 said. ‘The same has been added in case other infrigment of instituted rules did not appear profitable.’
After these insitutional rules, the ED turned on an August 4, 2023, notice targeting BBC WS India, including its board members and head of finance. That resulted in more thorough examination of foreign media companies operating within the country. The India investigation moved operational budgetary audits of BBC India and resulted in claims that media company fully interfered with local allocated funds of foreign media entity.
As per the rules established by the DPIIT, digital media companies can only take a maximum of 26 % foreign direct investment under the government’s approval route. However, the fully owned digital news streaming BBC WS India did not change the FDI limit to the required cap, and in fact continued to retain 100 percent foreign ownership which defied the Indian law, according to ED official.
