The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has recorded the statements of top functionaries of Bennett, Coleman and Company Limited (BCCL), which owns multiple media and entertainment brands and is the publisher of the Times of India Group of publications, under the Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA), The Indian Express has reported.
“Over the past few weeks, Sivakumar Sundaram, Chairman, Executive Committee (CEC) of the company; and Himanshu Agarwal, its Chief Financial Officer (CFO), have been called in for questioning at the ED headquarters in New Delhi,” said the report. The ED did not respond to a query about the report.
It said that “among BCCL’s financial transactions under the scanner are those to the tune of over ₹900 crore between the company and entities in global tax haven British Virgin Islands (BVI)”.
“Samir Jain, BCCL Vice-Chairman, and Vineet Jain, BCCL’s Managing Director, did not respond to an emailed questionnaire from The Indian Express seeking their response on the ED summons and the transactions under scrutiny... the balance sheets of the company show that among the various group companies is one MX Media Co Ltd, which is incorporated in the BVI,” said the report.
According to the report, the status of this BVI entity was shown as a “subsidiary” company in 2017-18 and 2018-19 with the parent company holding 52.35% equity. This was changed to the status of an “associate” company with the parent company’s equity diluted to 40.36% in the years 2019-2020 and 2020-2021.
“Filings of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on outward FDI flow for the year 2019 show the company (MX Media Co Ltd BVI) listed as a joint venture dealing with “financial insurance and business services”, and that it has an equity of $35.8 million,” it said. There were other “associate” companies of the group listed in BCCL’s balance sheet, which had been incorporated in South Korea, China and Singapore, it said.
