Income Tax officials are conducting ‘survey’ operations on the Indian offices of the British public broadcaster BBC in both Delhi and Mumbai, as per reports on Tuesday.
According to the report, IT personnel were verifying certain account documents in the BBC’s finance department. For the survey, income tax officials arrived at the BBC offices on KG Marg in the national capital. The British broadcaster’s office in Kalina Santacruz, Mumbai, was also surveyed, according to reports, which added that the survey was limited to BBC business premises only.
This sparked a series of reactions by the opposition parties.
Congress leader Jairam Ramesh said the government is after the BBC instead of accepting an Opposition demand on a Joint Parliamentary Committee on Adani-Hindenburg matter.
TMC’s Mahua Moitra also took to Twitter and wrote, “Reports of Income Tax raid at BBC’s Delhi office. Wow, really? How unexpected.”
“Central Govt has embarrassed itself and the Country by raiding offices of BBC,” Aam Aadmi Party spokesperson Saurabh Bharadwaj said in a tweet.
Now let’s understand the difference between a survey and a search (often termed by the layman as ‘raid’).
Firstly, it is important to note that there is no such word as “raid” in the in the Income-Tax Act, whereas, “search” is defined under Section 132 of the Act.
In tax evasion cases, searches are thorough inspections of buildings, places of business, and other locations to find hidden income or wealth. The authorities are also given the authority to seize documents, assets, bullion, and other items that have been hidden from them. That is why they are referred to as “search and seizure” operations.
In other words, a search is generally conducted when there is a continuous failure on the part of the assessee to attend to the summons received from the department, or when the assessee shows negligence towards the I.T. notices, or when the authorities suspect undisclosed income, including the possession of cash, bullion, jewellery, or other valuable articles.
A survey, on the other hand, is intended to discover assessees who could have been in the spotlight but have managed to avoid it by conducting an on-site investigation to gather on-the-spot information, including conducting stock and cash inspections.
Survey is a more relaxed version of the search procedures where the main motive is to reveal data.
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