BRANDWAGON, P9 COMPANIES, P4 NATION, P11 THE YEAR AHEAD GROWTH STRATEGY THE BIG PICTURE Customers to take centre stage, throwing marketers a challenge Unilever's shift towards power brands puts the focus on Indian market Striking the balance: Can quick commerce also deliver money? CHENNAI/KOCHI, MONDAY, JANUARY 1, 2024 FOLLOW US ON TWITTER & FACEBOOK. APP AVAILABLE ON APP STORE & PLAYSTORE WWW.FINANCIALEXPRESS.COM READ TO LEAD VOL NO. XLIV 201, 12 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 The original version of the iconic character loses copyright protection today projected load by 2030 to need more capex, says govt `1.12 trn loan disbursed by PFCREC under RDSS for 16 states as on date 2030, a lot of additional work has to be done,” the official said. The next phase of RDSS might also facilitate sanctioning of funds for new projects,aimed at improving operational efficiency of the country’s electricity distribution infrastructure. “Planning has started for the second ■ Sanctioned amount is `1.33 trn ■ Less than `6,000 crore released by Centre since start, against `12,000 crore allocated in Budget for FY24 phase of RDSS, which is likely to be launched after FY26… data is being collected on how much additional work the distribution sector requires to be strengthened to carry the load projected for 2030,” the official said. Continued on Page 3 Panagariya to head 16th finance panel FE BUREAU New Delhi, December 31 THE UNION GOVERNMENT on Sunday appointed former Niti Aayog vice chairman and Columbia University professor Arvind Panagariya as the chairman of the Sixteenth Finance Commission. The panel will recommend the centraltaxdevolutionformula and grants-in-aid to states for five years commencing April 1, 2026. Other members of the the report or October 31, 2025, INSIDE commissionwillbenotifiedsepawhicheveris earlier. rately, the government said in a The second The Terms of Reference (ToR) notification. Indian admin- coming forthe 16th Finance Commission ■ PAGE 2 istrative service officer have been kept shorter than the Ritvik Ranjanam Pandey previous FCs as desired by states, has been appointed as secretary to finance secretary TV Somanathan said the commission.The chairman and recently.Thishasbeendonetogivethecomother members would hold office mission much more leeway to take into from the date on which they respec- accountallinputsfromexpertswhoappear tively assume office up to the beforethecommission,tofashionanaward date of submission of that iswithin the constitutional frame. On November 29, the Union Cabinet Arvind Panagariya approved the broad ToR for the 16th FC. Continued on Page 2 ` trillion FY19 3.1 % of GDP FY20 3.4 FY21 4.3 1.7 FY22 5.9 2.5 FY23 7.4 FY24 BE 10 2.7 1.6 2.2 3.3 Railways' capex (` trillion) Total Budgetary support 2 2.4 THE INTERIM BUDGET 2024-25 may see a largely sustained momentum in budgetary capital expenditure,even though it maycome off the peak of the current financialyear. As per official sources,capex outlay for the next fiscal year will likely see a 10% increase overthe elevated Budget Estimate forthe currentyear,to come in at `11 trillion. This could ensure the ratioofBudget RUN-UP TO THE capex to GDP INTERIM doesn’t fall below 3%, the leveltheFRBM 2024-25 Act suggests, withzerorevenuedeficitand3%fiscaldeficit. In recent years,the Centre has accelerated budget capex growth,with BE of `10 trillion thisyearbeing 3.3% of the GDP,much higher than 1.6% in FY19.The BE for capex this year isup36%overtheactuallevelsinFY23,andit was the steepest annual hike ever. Key infrastructure agencies like National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) and Railways have beenmadetorelymuchmoreonBudgetfunds in recentyears. Budgetary capital expenditure 2.6 PRASANTA SAHU New Delhi, December 31 FY21 FY22 FY23 FY24BE NHAI capex (` trillion) Total Budgetary support FY21 FY22 FY23 1.62 Mickey Mouse copyright expiration: What it means 780 GW Capex growth to slow; outlay may be up 10% BUDGET ■ EXPLAINER, P6 Continued on Page 3 1.62 FE S P E C I A L this parameter, and thus are not considered in the fresh tender process. “Ononehand,thegovernmenttalksabout Make in India and pushing domestic players. On the other hand,various departments put conditions such as turnover threshold,experience with earlier supply of large quantities in the tenders. These conditions make participation of local players difficult,”an executive at a local firm said. THE CENTRE IS planning to launch another scheme to enable public sector power distribution utilities (discoms) to cut technical lossesvia“transition-financing”of the required capital expenditure. The new scheme would follow the expiry of the `3-trillion Revamped Distribution SectorScheme (RDSS) launched in FY22 for five years through FY26, a senior power ministry official said. The proposed RDSS-II would have a similar aggregate outlay, and run for as many years as the current one, he added. “To be able to distribute the load of 780 giga watt(GW),which is projected for POWERING UP 1.6 BRITISH PRIME MINISTER Rishi Sunak is keen to clinch a free trade agreement (FTA) with India in time for Easter, which falls at the end of March 2024, according to a UK media report. ■ PAGE 3 overlooked in recent BSNL tenders, companies claim 1.74 SUNAK KEEN TO CLINCH FTAWITH INDIA BYAPRIL ■ Local players 1.74 TOP REAL ESTATE developers are now able to command a lower rate for construction finance at 8.75% to 9%, 1% to 2% less from that one year ago, reports Raghavendra Kamath. ■ PAGE 4 ■ Earlier govt tenders had thresholds for turnover, previous minimum supply quantities, etc 1.2 CONSTRUCTION FINANCE CHEAPER FOR TOP BUILDERS ■ Local firms say tenders shouldn't have conditions that bar domestic players from participating 0.57 THE INCOME TAX department has sent alerts to around three million salaried taxpayers, highlighting the apparent mismatch between TDS and refunds claimed, reports Priyansh Verma. ■ PAGE 2 AS BSNL READIES to float tenders for the revamped `1.4 trillion BharatNet project, Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) and Tejas Networks and smaller domestic players have demanded equitable treatment with foreign counterparts like Ericsson and Nokia,according to officials in the know. These companies,through their association,Voice of Indian Communication Technology Enterprises (VoICE), have urged the department of telecommunications (DoT) that the process should not have conditions that bar domestic players from participating in the tenders to supply telecom equipment under the BharatNet project, officials said. Besides Tejas, TCS, Nokia, and Ericsson, players like Inventum, Infinity Labs, Lekha Wireless,Nivetti Systems,Priyaraja Electronics, HFCL, STL, along with state-owned Centre for Development of Telematics (C-DoT), are looking to bid for the tenders, according to industrysources.Thiswill be forsupplying products such as optical fibre cable,switches and routers. One of the concerns raised bylocal players in previous government tenders is the eligibility condition that companies should have supplied a minimum quantity of equipment earlier. Local firms lose to larger players on Five-year scheme may have outlay similar to `3-trillion first phase ARUNIMA BHARADWAJ New Delhi, December 31 JATIN GROVER New Delhi, December 31 1.9 3 MN TAXPAYERS GETALERTS ON TAX DISCREPANCIES VOCAL FOR LOCAL 1.22 IRANIAN-BACKED HOUTHI militants attacked a Maersk container vessel with missiles and small boats, prompting the company to pause all sailing through the Red Sea for 48 hours, Maersk said on Sunday. Local companies feel they are handicapped vis-a-vis Nokia, Ericsson Govt plans second phase for discom-financing scheme 0.3 MAERSK PAUSES RED SEA SAILINGS AFTER ATTACK 0.46 NEWS BharatNet: Tejas, TCS seek fair shot 1.6 IN THE BIDDING TO KICK OFF IN A FEW MONTHS 1.11 We wish our readers a HAPPY NEW YEAR FY24BE ● AMITABH CHAUDHRY , MD & CEO, AXIS BANK ‘We are working on building an all-weather institution’ Amitabh Chaudhry took the reins as MD & CEO ofAxis Bank,India’s thirdlargest private sector bank,on January, 1,2019,at a time when the bank was going through a tough time,especially in terms of perception.Five years later, with key numbers improving and with crucial acquisitions,the bank’s fortunes have turned around significantly.Chaudhry tells Sachin Kumar and Joydeep Ghosh that while the current focus is on consummating the Citi deal,the bank is also open to acquisition opportunities at right valuations.Excerpts: ❝ What are some of the challenges you faced when you took over at the bank? Some of the key legacy challenges were asset quality, good quality growth and legacy tech systems.And we have overcome our legacy challenges. The task of cleaning up and strengthening the balance sheet was the first challenge.This involved completely changing the credit culture, moving to more prudent and rule-based provision- & IF APPROPRIATE (ACQUISITION) OPPORTUNITIES AT COMPELLING VALUATIONS ARE AVAILABLE FOR OUR SUBSIDIARIES TO SCALE UP, WE WILL EVALUATE ing and conservative accounting policies.We also successfully raised substantial amounts of capital.To achieve good quality growth,we articulated our strategy in a cogent manner, using the simple abbreviation ‘GPS’: growth, profitability & sustainability.We defined what we as a bank wanted to achieve in the medium term under each of these prerogatives and businesses and functions also built plans under the same umbrella. A multi-year tech transformation project has addressed much of this and made the bank future-ready. Continued on Page 2 CHENNAI/KOCHI