No 'convincing response' by BBC to past tax notices, says India govt adviser

Tax officials searched the BBC's premises in Mumbai and Delhi for a second day on Wednesday.

The BBC did not provide a "convincing response" to Indian tax authorities in the past and the current survey on the organisation was connected to transfer pricing rules and diversion of profits, a senior Indian government official said on Wednesday.

Private security guards close the gate of a building housing BBC office in New Delhi, India, Tuesday, (AP)

Tax officials searched the BBC's premises in Mumbai and Delhi for a second day on Wednesday.

The income tax survey was not vindictive or "done out of a sense of pique", Kanchan Gupta, Senior Adviser at the Ministry of Information & Broadcasting, told Times Now news channel.

The BBC told employees in an internal note on Wednesday that India is looking into questions about the BBC's structure, activities and tax status.