Rejecting allegations of impropriety about its transactions related to the Indian Premier League (IPL), World Sports Group (WSG) said on Friday it has not used funds received in connection with the IPL broadcast rights for “inappropriate or unlawful activities”.
The Income Tax
department, investigating alleged irregular transactions in the IPL, is also looking into a payment of USD 80 million-facilitation fee to WSG by Multi-Screen Media (MSM) for T20 league’s telecast rights.
WSG has denied that “any executive or employee has received or admitted to receiving any monies other than in the normal course of business."
In a statement, the company also rejected allegations that it used any funds received in connection with its sub-licence of broadcast rights for inappropriate or unlawful activities.
Further, WSG noted that it totally rejected unsubstantiated comments and innuendos about its business transactions and stated that they are unfounded and without substance.
Yesterday, an IT department official had said that the department has got “convincing evidence of a facilitation fee of around USD 80 million paid by MSM to WSG".
A portion of the facilitation fee was understood to have been paid by MSM to an offshore company of WSG in Mauritius, a tax haven, without paying income tax on the transaction in India.
According to the statement, WSG has fully cooperated with the IT and will continue to do so.
“WSG has completed a round of meetings with officials and provided relevant documents.
These show that the terms of the contracts between WSG and MSM are fully and properly detailed and demonstrate agreements reached in the normal course of business,” it added.
Moreover, WSG said it will have another round of meetings with the income tax authorities to provide further clarifications.