ED raids 2 companies on IPRS’ collection contract

Mumbai: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) raided two companies that collected royalty worth several crores on behalf of the Indian Performing Rights Society (IPRS) and allegedly defaulted on passing the same to the artists, in the form of payments. The searches went on till late in the night, ED officials said. The two companies have been identified as Phonographic Performance Limited (PPL) and Select Media Holdings Private Limited (SMHPL), whose premises were raided on Monday. The investigators said that IPRS had entered into a contract with PPL, giving them the rights for collecting royalty.

Subsequently, the PPL had entered into a contract with the SMHPL and gave them the rights for royalty collection. The ED has now learnt that things allegedly started falling apart as the royalty collected by SMHPL was not passed onto IPRS.

“As per the agreement between IPRS and the two companies, royalty of Rs 6,000 was agreed to be collected for playing a Hindi song and Rs 3,000 for a song in any other language. Accordingly, several crores were collected by SMHPL but not even a third of it was passed on to PPL. IPRS didn’t receive anything ultimately,” said a senior ED officer, requesting anonymity.

The collection of royalty took place between 2008 and 2013, the officials said, adding that they will soon summon the senior office bearers of the company for recording their statement.

“We have seized the agreement documents that were signed by the two companies with IPRS and the accounting books pertaining to the royalty collection. The papers will be studied further,” added the ED officer.