SIS Live, the UK-based outdoor broadcast firm that carried out the Commonwealth Games coverage for Doordarshan, has spoken out against what it called defamatory allegations by a prominent newspaper group in India.
The firm denied the report which said that SIS Live had sub-contracted its deal to Delhi-based Zoom Communications for 70% of the contract value of Rs246 crore.
SIS Live pointed out that its own equipment costs for covering the event came to Rs140 crore and it looks unlikely to make any profit out of the entire event due to cost over runs and delays.
"SIS Live deployed over 600 staff, contracted suppliers from across the world at significant additional cost and shipped over 60 tonnes of equipment to India from SIS stores in the UK and other overseas subcontractors. This equipment alone is valued in excess of Rs140 crore," it said, calling the allegation 'factually inaccurate, misleading in their implications, and gravely defamatory'.
"The escalation of our costs in many cases due to circumstances completely out of our control would now mean that we would be relieved and happy if we complete the contract with any profit at all,” added David Meynell, managing director of the UK-based firm.
The company also denied the reported allegations by the income tax department that it had formed an Indian subsidiary with a view to save tax in Britain by transferring its contract to the Indian company. "It established a project office in India and is not an Indian subsidiary...SIS Live is liable for, and will pay, tax on income generated in India," the firm said in reply to a query by DNA.
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