‘No foreign funding’: Media-funding foundation responds to tax ‘survey’

The Income Tax department conducted a “survey action” at the Bangalore office of the Independent and Public Spirited Media Foundation on Wednesday, CNBC- TV18 reported.

The IPSMF is a charitable foundation which provides assistance, including financial, to digital organisations that disseminate public interest information. Sunil Rajshekhar, who was previously with the Times group, is its chief executive officer.

Grantees of IPSMF include publications such as the Caravan, the Print, Economic and Political Weekly, Swarajya, Article14, and Alt News.

The IPSMF is the latest organisation in the media space to be raided by the Income Tax department. Nearly a year ago, Newslaundry was similarly subjected to an IT “survey”.

To know more about the laws that allow the tax sleuths to do “surveys” and searches, watch this explainer.

Update:

In a statement on Friday, the IPSMF said the tax officials had stayed at their office until 4.30 am this morning and took all their laptops and cellphones to clone the data.

“The foundation believes that its affairs are entirely in order. Some media reporting on the IT survey has linked it to foreign funding and the funding of political parties. We wish to make it clear that the foundation has received no foreign funds at any stage, and has funded only media entities,” the statement said. “The foundation believes in its mission of supporting independent and public-spirited media, and intends to continue its work.”