COMPANIES, P4 COMPANIES, P4 INTERNATIONAL, P7 INDIA’S CREATOR ECONOMY CRUCIAL COUNTRY A TOP-10 MARKET THAWING TIES Our job is to build amazing tools, says YouTube CEO Mohan P&G steps up India focus, doubles down on ‘integrated’ strategy US, China agree to set up economic, financial working groups BENGALURU, SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 23, 2023 FOLLOW US ON TWITTER & FACEBOOK. APP AVAILABLE ON APP STORE & PLAYSTORE WWW.FINANCIALEXPRESS.COM READ TO LEAD VOL NO. XXXVI 135, 18 PAGES, `12.00 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: 66,009.13 ▼ 221.11 NIFTY: 19,674.25 ▼ 68.10 NIKKEI 225: 32,402.41 ▼ 168.62 HANG SENG: 18,057.45 ▲ 402.04 `/$: 82.94 ▲ 0.16 `/€: 88.22 ▲ 0.31 BRENT: $94.28 ▲ $0.98 GOLD: `58,870 ▼ `57 THE SUPREME COURT on Friday asked low cost airline SpiceJet to pay $1 million per month for six months to global investment bank and financial services firm Credit Suisse towards repayment of dues, reports fe Bureau. ■ PAGE 4 PIYUSH SHUKLA Mumbai, September 22 INADEVELOPMENTthatislikelytopromptforeign inflows into the country and deepen the bond market, Wall Street major JPMorgan announced on Friday that Indian bonds will be included in its emerging market debt index. The move is expected to pave the way for inflowsofaround$25billion.Theinclusionwill occur without any tax incentives for overseas investors—amajorpointofcontentionbetween the Indian government and indexproviders. India's government bonds (IGB) or government securities (G-Sec) will enter JPMorgan's GlobalBondIndex-EmergingMarkets(GBI-EM) global index suite, which currently manages around $236billion in global funds. The entry will take place over a 10-month period, spanning from June 28 to March 31, 2025, indicating a 1% increment in its index weight each month. JPMorgan said, “India's weight is expected to reach the maximum weight threshold of 10% in the GBI-EM Global Diversifiedandapproximately8.7%intheGBIEM Globalindex.” INDIA’S FOREIGN EXCHANGE reserves fell $867 million to a near four-month low of $593.04 billion in the week ended September 15, reports Ajay Ramanathan. The reserves had fallen to $593.9 billion in the week ended September 8. ■ PAGE 6 FE S P E C I A L Aprilia is arming its road bike with MotoGP technology From design to engine, everything in the RS 457 is inspired by racing. ■ MOTOBAHN, P7 India's yield is average for index, but among highest in EM Asia 10-year government bond yield (%) Asia Other region Source: Bloomberg, Goldman Sachs Global Investment Research 0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 INSIDE Edit: Bonding with India PAGE 8 Continued on Page 10 PRANJUL BHANDARI, CHIEF INDIA ECONOMIST, HSBC JAYESH MEHTA, INDIA TREASURER, BoFA FOR LONG-LASTING BENEFITS, TWO CONDITIONS MUST BE MET — INCLUSION IN VARIOUS BOND INDICES OVER TIME, AND EASIER OPERATIONALACCESS TO THE INDIAN BOND MARKET FOREX KITTY FALLS TO NEAR 4-MONTH LOW OF $593 BN 24 Turkey South Africa Brazil Russia Colombia Mexico India Hungary Peru Romania Indonesia Chile Poland Philippines Czech Republic Malaysia Thailand China WE EXPECT THAT OVER TIME THE BENCHMARK YIELD WILL RULE 35-40 BASIS POINTS OVER THE REPO RATE. THIS WOULD ALSO HELP CORPORATE BONDS THE DIRECTORATE GENERAL of GST IntelligenceonFridayslappedademandof `11,139.6 crore on e-gaming company DeltaCorp,forallegedunderpaymentofthe Goods and ServiceTax (GST) forthe period between July2017and March 2022. The amount demanded includes interestandpenalty,thecompanyinformedthe stockexchangeduringtheday,addingthat it“will pursue all legal remedies available” to challenge such tax demand,which it is told is“arbitraryand contraryto law”. This is believed to be the second-highest tax demand on an e-gaming company bythe GSTdepartment afterit asked Ben- ■ Demand against Delta shows govt sticking to stance of 28% GST on online gaming, casinos at full bet value galuru-based online gaming firm Gameskraft to cough up `21,000 crore in September 2022. The matter is now before the Supreme Court,which on September 11 stayed the Karnataka High Court’sMay2023judgmentthatquashed the tax notice. ThetaxdemandonDeltaCorpindicates thatthegovernmentisstickingtoitsstance `21,000 cr GST demand from Gameskraft in Sept 2022 highest; matter before Supreme Court that GST at 28% was always applicable to online gaming and casinos, at the full bet value/ actionable claims. The GST Council on August 2 decided that 28% tax shall apply on the full face value of bets, without any distinction between games of skill orchance. Continued on Page 9 CPSE dividend receipts to cross Budget target 0PRASANTA SAHU New Delhi, September 22 THE CENTRE’S DIVIDEND receipts from centralpublicsectorenterprises(CPSEs)will likelybecloserto`59,000croreachievedin the past two years as against the moderate target of `43,000 crore set for 2023-24. This will largely be thanks to likely robust receipts from the energy,power and commoditysectorfirms. The `59,000 crore receipts in FY222 and FY23, despite the government reduc- ingitsstakeinseveralCPSEs, wereaidedby higher commodity prices and the policy of the department of investment and public asset management (Dipam) of nudging CPSEs to give higherdividends. So,evenifthedisinvestmentreceiptsfall short substantially against the target of `51,000 crore for FY24, due to likely nonmaterialisationofbig-ticketstrategicsales, itwon’taltertheCentre’sfiscalmathforthe yearas tax revenues are also on track. Continued on Page 9 CPSE DIVIDENDS AT HIGHER LEVELS POST-PANDEMIC (` cr) Budget estimate FY20 FY21 FY22 Achievement 43,000 13,792 (So far) PAY $1 MN A MONTH TO CREDIT SUISSE, SC TELLS SPICEJET Entry into JP Morgan index to INDIAAND THE WORLD be over a 10-month period ■ GST Council had decided 28% shall apply on full face value of bets, without distinction between games of skill or chance 40,000 58,988 THE SUSPENSION OF visa operations by India and Canada would not have a major impact on bilateral trade in the medium or long-term, according to experts, reports Mukesh Jagota ■ PAGE 2 PRASANTA SAHU New Delhi, September 22 TAX TANGLE 59,294 VISA CURBS: IMPACT ON INDIA-CANADA TRADE SHORT-TERM Company to pursue all legal remedies 50,028 HIGH-FREQUENCY INDICATORS (HFIs) for July-August 2023 period reflect sustenance of growth momentum from first to second quarter, the finance ministry said in its monthly report on the economy on Friday, reports Prasanta Sahu. ■ PAGE 2 `11,140-cr GST blow to Delta India debuts in EM bond index 65,747 39,608 GOVT: GROWTH MOMENTUM REMAINS INTACT SECOND-HIGHEST TAX DEMAND ON AN E-GAMING FIRM 35,543 NEWS $25 BN FUNDS INFLOW EXPECTED 57,487 IN THE FY23 FY24 Credit system to replace laptop import licensing JATIN GROVER New Delhi, September 22 INABIG reliefforglobalmajorslikeApple,Samsung,among others,their IT hardware imports comprisinglaptops,tablets,personalcomputers andserverswillnotfacelicensing or quotas from November 1, as was initially announced by the government. Sources said that at a meeting with industry representativesonFriday, theministryofelectronics and information technology (Meity) has indicated that the government will move towards a credit-based system,whereintheseplayerswillhavetoregisterunderan import management system. Underthecredit-basedsystem,manufacturers will be assessed on three criteria: their past year’s imports,progress on domestic manufacturingofIThardwareproducts,andexportsfrom India.Basedontheirperformanceontheseparameters the government will allot them credit pointswhich can be used to import laptops and otherIThardware products. For instance,Apple and Samsung have not applied for the production-linked incentive schemeforIThardware,butaremanufacturing in the countryunderthe smartphonePLIandexporting in huge numbers. The credit points which will accrue to them because of this will ensure that their imports continue smoothly. Similarly, manufacturers like Dell, HP,Asus,Acer, Lenovo have applied for the IT hardware PLI and once approved,theywill start domestic manufacturingandexports.Thecreditpointsaccruingfrom thiswillensureimportsforthemintheinterim. Continued on Page 10 ON DAY 1, iPHONE PRO, PRO MAX SELL OUT Big rush for a taste of Apple AYANTI BERA Bengaluru, September 22 AS THE IPHONE 15 went on sale on Friday, thedemandforthetop-endiPhoneProand iPhone Pro Max overshot supplies, leading to awaiting period of 15-20 days. According to retailers, consumers who had pre-booked these two models,will be able to get their deliveries only by the first week of October.Those who booked their phones on Fridaywill get them onlyaround October15-20. This is the first time that a new range of iPhones has been launched in India on the same day as globally. This is also the first time that the new range of iPhones,which are being retailed in India have also been made in India. However, the Pro and Max models are not being made in the country.The respective base price of these two models is `134,900and`159,900.Thetopmostvariant of Pro Max is priced at `199,900.Apple makes these two models in smaller numbers, but the high demand for the in India shows that consumers have become upwardlymobile,analysts said. Unlike other brands, Apple phone Customers at the Apple store at BKC in Mumbai on Friday. launchesgiveretailersahugepushbecause there are no discounts offered. Apple phones can be bought through its retail stores or through the tech giant’s online stores,with no discounts at either point of sale. So there’s no incentive to buy online other than convenience. Inthecaseofotherbrands,50%salesare throughonlinechannelsbecauseofthediscountsoffered.InthecaseofChinesebrand EXPRESS PHOTO: PRADIP DAS Xiaomi,90% sales are online. “Both iPhone 15 Pro and Pro Max had limitedsupplyandarecurrentlyoutofstock atourstore,”saidanexecutiveatBengalurubased smartphone retailer Sangeetha Mobiles. Large retailers like Croma are seeing similar supply crunches for Pro and Pro Max models despite strong pre-bookings. Continued on Page 9 BENGALURU