ECONOMY, P2 COMPANIES, P4 RETURN OF NORMALCY Unemployment rate falls to 4-month low in May MOTOBAHN, P8 TAX RESTRUCTURING TRAI EXTENDS DEADLINE PRICELESS, BUT NEEDS TO BE PRICED LESS GoM on GST slabs recast to get six more months to submit report TV broadcasters to now implement new tariff from Nov 30 Kia EV6 wonderful, but at up to `65 lakh, it is way too expensive NEW DELHI, SATURDAY, JUNE 4, 2022 FOLLOW US ON TWITTER & FACEBOOK. APP AVAILABLE ON APP STORE & PLAYSTORE WWW.FINANCIALEXPRESS.COM READ TO LEAD VOL XLVIII NO. 81, 20 PAGES, `10.00 (PATNA & RAIPUR `10.00) P U B L I S H E D F R O M : A H M E D A B A D , B E N G A L U R U , C H A N D I G A R H , C H E N N A I , H Y D E R A B A D , K O C H I , K O L K ATA , L U C K N O W, M U M B A I , N E W D E L H I , P U N E SENSEX: 55,769.23 ▼ 48.88 NIFTY: 16,584.30 ▼ 43.70 NIKKEI 225: 27,761.57 ▲ 347.69 HANG SENG: 21,082.13 ▼ 212.81 `/$: 77.63 ▼ 0.02 `/€: 83.42 ▼ 0.45 BRENT: $118.63 ▲ $1.02 GOLD: `51,243 ▲ `255 IN THE NEWS Musk wants 10% job cuts at Tesla TESLA CEO ELON Musk has a “super bad feeling” about the economy and needs to cut about 10% of jobs at the electric carmaker, he said in an email to executives, reports Reuters. The message, sent on Thursday and titled “pause all hiring worldwide”, came two days after Musk told staff to return to the workplace or leave. Monsoon makes slow progress, to pick up by June 17 AFTER ENTERING THE Kerala coast on Sunday, progress of the southwest monsoon has been slow and is expected to pick up pace from June 17 onwards, a senior official with the ministry of earth sciences said on Friday, reports Sandip Das in New Delhi. Xiaomi rejig: Alvin Tse appointed India head XIAOMI HAS RESTRUCTURED its India leadership at a time when it is facing a probe by Indian law enforcement agencies on alleged tax evasion, reports Kiran Rathee in New Delhi. The company on Friday appointed Alvin Tse, a British national, as the general manager for spearheading its India operations. Fake LCs: Strict action against wheat exporters THE GOVERNMENT WILL take strict action against the exporters who had created fake, back-dated letters of credit (LCs) to circumvent the ban on wheat exports imposed on May 13, Union minister for commerce, industry and food Piyush Goyal said on Friday, reports Sandip Das in New Delhi. SBI loses market share in debit card spends in FY22 SBI LOST MARKET share in debit card spends between March 2021 and March 2022, even as it managed to hold on to or improve its share in most other lines of business, reports Shritama Bose in Mumbai. CONGLOMERATE OWNS TWO OF THREE KEY AIRLINES Tatas’ Air India buy hits Singapore antitrust wall FE BUREAU Mumbai, June 3 ■ Talace, a subsidiary of theTata Sons, took control ofAir India on January 27 closest, competitor,” the CCCS has observed. Section 54 of the Singapore's Competition Act,2004, prohibits mergers that have resulted,ormaybe expected to result, in a substantial lessening of competition in the country. Competition issues arise under the Act if the Air India, Vistara and Singapore Airlines are the three key airlines that operate on SingaporeMumbai and SingaporeDelhi routes merged entity has/will have a market share of 40% or more; or has/will have a market share of between 20% and 40%, and the post-merger combined market share of the three largest firms is 70% or more. Merging entities are not requiredtonotifyCCCSoftheir Tatas pip L&T, SP Group, to build Noida airport FE BUREAU Mumbai, June 3 BEATING ENGINEERINGAND construction majors like Larsen &Toubro and Shapoorji Pallonji Group, Tata Projects has bagged the contract to build the Noida International Airport (NIA). The company, whichistheinfrastructureand construction arm of Tata Group, scored higher than the other two firms in quality and cost-based selection criteria. This is the second airport venture for Tata Projects after the Prayagraj Airport terminal in Allahabad. The contract includes construction of a runway, terminals, roads, utilities, airside infrastructure and otherancillary buildings at the Noida International Airport. Noida InternationalAirport is a public-private partnership project between ZurichAirport International and the Uttar Pradesh government,with the former investing `5,700 crore for phase I.The Yamuna InternationalAirport (YIAPL),which isa special purposevehicle that has been set up to develop NIA, isawholly-ownedsubsidiaryof Zurich Airport International. With the closure of the EPC contract, the first phase of the airport is on track to be delivered within three years of the Firms withstand price pressures FE BUREAU New Delhi, June 3 Concerns over overlapping of both air passenger and cargo routes TATAGROUP'SACQUISITION of Air India is likely to run into a regulatorywall in Singapore. The country's antitrust body, Singapore's Competition and ConsumerCommission(CCCS) on Friday observed that Air India and Vistara, which is a 51:49 joint venture between Tata Group and SingaporeAirlines, are two of the three key market players that operate flights on the SingaporeMumbai and Singapore-Delhi routes, resulting in overlapping of both air passenger and transport routes. “Both airlines are likely to be each other's close,if not the Services PMI at 11-yr high, input-cost inflation zooms Vistara's 51% stake is held by Tatas and remaining 49% is with Singapore Airlines ■ Third-party feedback suggests the presence of SingaporeAirlines as a significant competitor of Air India andVistara mergerbuttheyarerequiredto conduct a self-assessment to ascertain if a notification to CCCS is necessary. If they are concerned that the mergerhas infringed, or is likely to infringe, the Act, they should notify their merger to CCCS. Continued on Page 2 Govt nod to 8.1% EPF interest rate for 2021-22 FE BUREAU New Delhi, June 3 YIAPL, said. “Noida International Airport will bolster employment generation and economicgrowthinthestateas well as the country,”he added. In 2019, Zurich Airport International AG won the bid to develop NIA and had also got security clearance, signed concession and shareholder agreements, among others, for the project. THE EMPLOYEES’ PROVIDENT Fund Organisation (EPFO)will soon start crediting 8.1% rate of interest for202122 to its members as the finance ministry has ratified the rateproposedbythe retirement fund body in March. In March,the Central Board of Trustees (CBT), the highest decision-making body of the EPFO, decided to lower the interest on provident fund deposits for 2021-22 to an over-four-decade low of 8.1% for its nearly 65 million subscribers.ThiswasthelowestEPF interest state since 1977-78, when it stood at 8%, but still higher than the returns small saverscouldgetunderanyother fixed-income schemes. For 2020-21, the interest rate for EPFwassetat8.5%,thesameas in the previous fiscal. As per the practice, the rate proposedbytheCBTneedstobe ratifiedbythefinanceministry before the same is credited to individual employees’ provident fund (EPF) accounts, even as the EPFO pays the interest from its own income without dependingupontheexchequer. Continued on Page 2 Continued on Page 2 ■ In 2019, Zurich Airport International won the bid to develop Noida airport ■ This is the second airport project for the Tata company after Prayagraj Airport terminal in Allahabad Noida International Airport is being developed under PPP between Zurich Airport International and UP government commencementoftheconcession period.“With the award of this EPC contract, our project enters the next phase, which will witness a rapid increase in the pace of construction activities on site.TogetherwithTata Projects, we’re working to deliver a passenger terminal, runwayandotherairportinfrastructure with a capacity of 12 millionpassengersannuallyby 2024,” Christoph Schnellmann,chiefexecutiveofficerat Zurich Airport is investing `5,700 crore for phase I of the project IN A SIGN that contact-intensive services are finally gathering momentum, a survey said on Friday that services sector activities in India expanded at the strongest rate in over 11 years in May. The sectorhas remained on an expansion mode for the tenth straight month. The growth was supported bya substantial pick-up innew business, even as input-cost inflation climbed to a record high.Of course,elevated prices continuetodentbusinessoptimism among service providers. Subdued global demand for Indian services is another worry. The seasonally adjusted S&PGlobal India Services PMI Business Activity Index jumped to 58.9 in May, up from 57.9 in April, “amid betterunderlyingdemandand strong inflows of newwork”. In Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) parlance, a reading above 50 indicates expansion while one below 50 denotes contraction. In fact,a healthy growth in contact-intensive services had boosted overall supply-side growth in Q4FY23,despite the 60 55 58.9 58 9 50.8 54.6 50 45 40 35 46 4 46.4 Manufacturing PMI Services PMI May 2021 Note: Reading below 50 suggests contraction and above it indicates expansion; Source: PMI by S&P Global Omicron wave. Among such services, the “trade, hotels, transport,etc,”segment,which remained a laggard for long, also crossed the pre-pandemic mark in the quarter, growing 5.3% on year. Of course, the growth in gross value added in the segment sequentially declined from34.4%inQ1FY23to9.6% inQ2andfurtherto6.3%inQ3, partly due to the waning of a favourablebase. However, this segment in Ambani reclaims Asia’s richest tag from Adani ❝ ❝ ❝ ❝ IPO as the next round of financing, and unable to estimate the market size. “So invariablyyourcosts go (up),butyourrevenuesdon'tgo up,therefore(you)makelosses, and market capitalisation comes down.” He recalled the discussions he and anotherco-founders of Infosys had held before Infosys IPO. ratheroverestimated the markets...we have overestimated the market size,alsowe probably don't have good market research companies that can give us an accurate estimate of the market opportunity,”he said. Murthy also said he wouldn’t have wanted to be an entrepreneur in the current environment. “I don’t have the smartness that today’s entrepre- Domestic sales: Fresh pitch for duty relief to SEZs Noting that market and talent accesswere easyforhim and his team when they started at Infosys, Murthy said, “...there was hardly any job in India at that time, but today it is so difficult to first get to the market as there is so much competition from so many smart entrepreneurs. It is so difficult to get access to talent. I find this to be the main difference.” “Also, VC money is easily available today...in our time, there was no VC or bank loan. Today, there is a lot of money chasing these ideas, and VCs also have a job to do,”he said. Murthy added that there is a certain pressure on entrepreneurs to succeed as early as possible. Continued on Page 2 Continued on Page 2 Mukesh Ambani, RIL chairman Gautam Adani, Adani Group chairman FE BUREAU New Delhi, June 3 richest person with a jump in his personal wealth. He also became the world’s biggest wealth gainer this year. RIL’s shares have surged 6.79% in a week. It has risen 16.61% in 2022 and has delivered 27% return in the last one year. According to the list, Tesla chief Elon Musk is the world's richest with $227 billion, followed by Amazon’s Jeff Bezos with $149 billion, LVMH’s BernardArnaultwith$138billion and Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates with $124 billion. Legendary investor Warren Buffett isfifthwith a networth of $114 billion. ONTHE BACK of a strong rally in Reliance Industries’ shares, Mukesh Ambani on Friday regained his position as the Asia’s and India’s richest man, beatingAdaniGroupchairman Gautam Adani. According to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, Ambani is now the world’s eighth richest with a net worth of $99.7 billion. In comparison Adani, with a net worth of $98.7 billion,is at the ninth position. In February, Adani had overtaken Ambani as Asia’s ❝ We have overestimated the market size. Also, we probably don't have good market research companies. ❝ ❝ ❝ INFOSYS CO-FOUNDER NR Narayana Murthy on Friday called out the current crop of entrepreneurs for not taking initial public offerings (IPOs) seriously and not treating investors’savingswith respect. The IT veteran said: “IPOs have somehow been taken as a surrogate forthe next round of financing. I think that's not a good thing because an IPO comes with tremendous responsibility. Murthy was addressing a gathering at the ‘India Global Innovation Connect’, a global conference on start-ups. He believes today’s entrepreneurs are in a “jam” and under pressure from venture capitalists, and looking at the “An IPO brings onerous responsibility...as so many people with very little money would put faith in us and put in their meagre disposable income,it is important to give them a suitable return,” he said. Murthyobserved that in general we have not done a good job of estimating the market size. “We have traditionally, or by habit, Continued on Page 2 THE COMMERCE MINISTRY has made a renewed push to allow firms in the special economic zones (SEZs) to sell goods in the domestic market at a low duty, as it prepares a raft of proposals to replace the existing law governing these duty-free enclaves with a new piece of legislation, official and industry sources told FE. The ministry wants the levyto be lower than the regular customs duties that SEZ units are currently mandated to pay while supplying to the domestic tariff area (DTA). At the same time,this levywould be enough to neutralise the advantages that SEZs enjoy vis-à-vis domestic manufacturers. The idea is to enable Covid-hit SEZs to betterutilise their idle capacities and improve sales. “Both the commerce and the revenue departments are in talks on this issue. A decision will be taken soon,” said the source. Another source said, “Talks are also going on as towhat could be the form of support to SEZs if this (lower duty) doesn’t materialise.” The commerce ministry is targeting to introduce a new SEZ Bill in the monsoon session of Parliament, which is usually convened in July, said one of the sources. A swift decision on the critical issue of assistance to woo new investors is, therefore, the need of the hour. Once considered to be drivers of future export growth, SEZs have been losing sheen afterthe government adopted in 2020 a sunset clause for granting a phased income-tax holiday for 15 years. This is in sync with the Union finance ministry’s stated bid to cut the myriad of exemptions to make the country’s tax system simpler and more robust. Infy co-founder says IPOs can’t be surrogate for financing IPO brings onerous responsibility...as so many people with very little money would put faith in us. FY22asawholewasstill11.3% below FY20, the year immediately before the pandemic. Many analysts believe that the contact-intensive sectors will a give a fillip to growth in Q1 and forthewhole of FY23. Accordingtothedataonnational income released on Tuesday,on the output side,the weakest sector was“financial,real estateandprofessionalservices” with a growth of 4.2% in FY22. BANIKINKAR PATTANAYAK New Delhi, June 3 CURRENT CROP OF ENTREPRENEURS NOT TAKING PUBLIC OFFERS SERIOUSLY FE BUREAU Bengaluru, June 3 May 2022 neurs have, they have confidence, ingenuity and they’re facing a shortage of talent and access to markets is difficult. I don’t know if I could have managed,”he said. Listing three ingredients for success he said these were access to the customer or market access, access to talent and availability of venture capital funds. New Delhi