MARKETS, P9 COMPANIES, P4 INTERNATIONAL, P8 DEBT A WORRYING FACTOR NASCENT MARKET TIM COOK HOSTS TESLA BOSS Green energy stocks to find favour despite ESG focus Britannia bets big on cheese to cash in on growth potential Elon Musk says 'misunderstanding' with Apple resolved NEW DELHI, FRIDAY, DECEMBER 2, 2022 FOLLOW US ON TWITTER & FACEBOOK. APP AVAILABLE ON APP STORE & PLAYSTORE WWW.FINANCIALEXPRESS.COM READ TO LEAD VOL XLVIII NO. 235, 24 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: 63,284.19 ▲ 184.54 NIFTY: 18,812.50 ▲ 54.15 NIKKEI 225: 28,226.08 ▲ 257.09 HANG SENG: 18,736.44 ▲ 139.21 `/$: 81.22 ▲ 0.21 `/€: 84.81 ▲ 0.45 BRENT: $88.05 ▲ $1.07 GOLD: `52,932 ▲ `358 IT COMPANIES HAVE emerged as top job creators in India, with TCS listed as the top employer, according to the 2022 Burgundy Private Hurun India report. In value terms, oil-totelecom major RIL has emerged as the top company, with it being valued at `17.25 trillion, reports Shashank Didmishe. ■ PAGE 18 FPIs bat for tax parity on dividends, buybacks in Budget FOREIGN PORTFOLIO INVESTORS want parity in the tax treatment given to dividends and buybacks in the upcoming Budget, reports Ashley Coutinho. The 2020-21 Budget did away with the dividend distribution tax in the hands of the company. ■ PAGE 9 3.36 4.26 5.93 7.50* FY20 FY21 FY22 FY23(BE) PV sales set to top 2018 high Better chip supply, high IN THE FAST LANE demand may see 2022 Auto sales 109,726 figure at 3.8 million Maruti Suzuki 132,395 21 SWARAJ BAGGONKAR Mumbai, December 1 THEPASSENGERVEHICLES(PV)segment, comprisingcars,SUVs&vans,isexpectedto close2022witharecordsalesof3.8million units which would be the best-ever in a calendaryear,beatingthepreviousbestof3.38 millionclocked in 2018. Resumptionofchipsuppliestonearnormallevelsboostingproduction,strongretail demandandnewmodellaunchesintheSUV segment have led to the strong growth. The PVindustryclosed Novemberwith more than 310,000 units, making it the sixth straight month with sales crossing Hyundai Tata Motors M&M 37,001 30 48,003 29,778 55 46,037 19,558 30,392 55 the 300,000. December is expected to be yet another month of high wholesales as the industry works to ramp up supplies and reduce the waiting period. The industry is sitting on estimated pending bookings of around 750,000 units, which is equivalent to more than Focus on spending quality (% change, y-o-y, in Centre's capex) Apr May Jun Jul Aug 0.5 Sep Oct 67.5 77.8 40.1 98.5 57.5 176.5 outlay for FY23 (`7.5 trillion),it’s already close to `11 trillion,which is a substantial chunk of the overall expenditure (`39.45 trillion),” he added. So,theabilitytoutilisetheentirecapexallocation will be a key determiningfactorfortheFY24outlay for capex,he furthersaid.In the aftermath of the pandemic,the Centre raised its budgetarycapexbyasmuch as 27% on year in FY21, 39% in FY22 (albeit including equity infusion into Air India Assets Holding) and 27% (budgeted) in FY23 -- way above the increase in overall Budget size of the relevantyears. RUN-UP TO THE BUDGET Continued on Page 10 GST mop-up at `1.46 trn, down 4% from October SURABHI New Delhi, December 1 GROSS GOODS AND services tax (GST) collections came in at `1.46 trillion in November (October transactions), up 11% on year but 4% lower sequentially,reflecting a slowing of the consumption momentum and easing of inflation.The Novembercollections are the lowest sinceAugust’s figure of `1.44 trillion,despite the festive season. Government officials, meanwhile, have indicated that the Centre's own pre-devolution GST revenue for the full fiscal may be higher than the Budget Estimate by around `1.5 trillion. Higher inflation and pent-up demand have boosted the revenue. The average monthly GST collections this fiscal have been `1.49 trillion as against `1.23 trillion last fiscal.“Monthly GST revenues have been at over `1.4 trillion for nine consecutivemonthsnow,”saidafinanceministry statement on Thursday. “During the month (November), revenue fromimportofgoodswas20%higherandthe revenue from domestic transactions (including import of services) is 8% higher than the revenue from these sources during the same month last year,”it said. According to the data,out of the gross GST revenue,CentralGSTwas`25,681crore,state GST `32,651 crore, integrated GST `77,103 GST REVENUE COLLECTION REMAINS STRONG 2022 (GST collection, ` trillion) Apr May Jun July Aug Sep Oct Nov Source: Ministry of finance INSIDE MANUFACTURING PMI HITS 3-MONTH HIGH IN NOV PAGE 4 crore (including `38,635 crore collected on import of goods) and cess `10,433 crore (including `817 crore collected on import of goods). Continued on Page 2 E-Re pilot fails to enthuse bankers NUPUR ANAND & SWATI BHAT Mumbai, December 1 A MONTH INTO India’s pilot project for using an official digital rupee for inter-bankandinstitutionaltransactions, stakeholders are seeing no benefits,several bankers said. Seven bankers told Reuters that using the e-rupee of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) was much the same as internet-based banking that users were already satisfied with. The RBI has devised the e-rupee basicallyasadigitalalternativetocash - one using blockchain distributedledger technology, to some degree anonymousandmostrelevanttoconsumersandretailers.Butintheinitial trial banks have been using it for settlements with each other - with no NETBANKING REPLICA ■ The RBI has devised the e-rupee basically as a digital alternative to cash ■ Seven bankers said using the e-rupee was much similar to internet-based banking particular advantage, according to bankers. Indeed,the e-rupee,one of several central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) being tried around the world, had a drawback, they said. Each trade using it had to be settled Nov 2021 Nov 2022 % change Two-wheeler sales Hero Honda Bajaj TVS 328,862 379,839 256,174 353,540 144,953 123,490 -14 175,940 191,730 9 16 38 Source: Companies 1.46 IT companies top employers; RIL most valuable: Report FY19 *Including `1 trn in long-term loans to states for capex 1.52 FUNDING INTO INTERNET marketplaces across B2B & B2C companies declined by 72% y-o-y in CY2022 (year-todate) to around $4.5 billion compared to a record high of $16 billion in the previous calendar year, estimates from the report released by Bain & Company and Accel on Thursday showed, reports Salman SH. ■ PAGE 4 35.1 26.9 23.2 THE CENTRAL GOVERNMENT will likely raise its budgetary capital expenditure to about `9 trillion in the next fiscal from the `7.5-trillion allocation for FY23, official sources indicated to FE. It aims to enhance capex meaningfully for thefourthstraightyearintheupcomingBudget forFY24,as it believes a sustained push to productive spending will spur economic growth, more sowhen a favourablebase effectwanes. However,the pace of rise in the Budgetary capexinFY24couldbelowerthanthe27%rise budgeted for FY23, thanks to a high base and limited capacityof departments and otherrelevant agencies to spend higher amounts year afteryear.However,thepaceoftheriseincapex in FY24 will still beat the growth in revenue spending by a wide margin,as the Centre bets big on the former's highermultipliereffect. Justlikethisfiscal,theenhancedcapexoutlaywillincludethelong-terminterest-freeloans to states forasset creation (the FY23 allocation stood at `1 trillion).Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Wednesday spelt out the government’sintenttousecapitalspendingtosustain strong economic growth,at the Reuters NEXT conference. She forecast a "very good" economy ahead of 2024 general polls. An official source said, “The government is very clear on boosting capex. The rate of rise in core (excluding grants-in-aid), however,will depend on factors, including the capacity to spend.” “Remember,if you factor in the grants-inaid for capital asset creation extended by the Centre(`3.18trillion)alongwiththecorecapex 37.9 1.48 Funding into e-marketplaces fell 72% in 2022 BANIKINKAR PATTANAYAK New Delhi, December 1 39.5 1.44 THE GOVERNMENTIS restructuring the Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana through measures, including use ofAIbased technologies for timely assessment of crop data to aid claims settlement and introduction of competitive bidding for premium quotes from insurers, reports Sandip Das. ■ PAGE 2 Total expenditure Capex 1.49 Revamped crop insurance scheme from kharif 2023 CENTRE'S BUDGETARY SPENDING (` trillion) 1.45 PASSENGERS ATTHE airports in Delhi, Bangalore & Varanasi will be allowed paperless entry and embarkation process, reports PTI. These airports will use facial recognition, which means passengers won’t need to carry ID cards & boarding passes. ■ PAGE 18 Pace of hike to lower than this year due to spending capacity 1.41 Paperless entry begins at 3 airports through DigiYatra `9-trn capex outlay likely for next fiscal 3.08 YES BANK ON Thursday said that the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has given conditional approval to Carlyle Group and Advent International to acquire 9.99% stake each in the lender, reports fe Bureau. ■ PAGE 9 MORE INTEREST-FREE LOANS FOR STATES 1.68 IN THE NEWS Carlyle, Advent get RBI approval for Yes Bank stake buy ■ As part of the trial, the banks are using it to settle trades in government securities ■ OnThursday, bonds worth `2.1 billion ($26 million) were traded using the e-rupee individually, whereas trades in the established interbank payment system were first netted off then settled in bulk with the clearing corporation. Continued on Page 2 New Delhi two months of wholesales.Maruti Suzuki continues to have the lion’s share of the booking pie with 374,000 units,followed byMahindra & Mahindra at over200,000 and Tata Motors with around 150,000. Continued on Page 10