Britain given visa warning

by AMIT ROY

INDIAN TRADE DEALS WILL BE ‘DIFFICULT’ IF RIGID LINE IS KEPT

PRIME MINISTER Theresa May’s government will find that negotiations aimed at signing a Free Trade Agreement with India will prove “difficult and prolonged” if it continues to stick to its rigid line on visas, especially on intra-company transfers.

This was stated by Anuj Chande, a corporate fi­nance partner and head of the South Asia Group for Grant Thornton UK, in an exclusive interview.

Asked whether intra-company visas were still a problem, Chande confirmed: “It is still a problem. I think the UK needs to pay attention to that aspect because I have a feeling that unless the UK changes its stance on the whole visa issue – whether it is for tourists as well as for workers – the negotiation in terms of the India-UK Free Trade Agreement will be prolonged and difficult.”

Chande was speaking to Eastern Eye after he had given the “key highlights” from the India meets Brit­ain Tracker: The latest trends on Indian Investment in the UK (2018) to the fifth India meets Britain dinner held last week at the “Indian-owned” St James’ Court Taj hotel in London.

The report has been compiled jointly by Grant Thornton, “one of the world’s largest professional services network of independent accounting and consulting member firms”, and the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII).

Chande told guests at the dinner that the report “demonstrates the huge contribution made by Indi­an companies to the vibrancy to the UK economy”.

The report sums up: “This year, our research iden­tified approximately 800 companies operating in the UK, with combined revenues of £46.4 billion (£47.5bn in 2017).

“Together, they paid £360 million in corporation tax (£276.7m in 2017) and employed 104,932 people (105,268 in 2017). This shows the continued impor­tance of the contribution that Indian companies make to the UK economy.”

The report was launched by, among others, the Indian high commissioner Yash Sinha – he partici­pated in the recent bilateral meetings between the Indian and British prime ministers – who said: “The findings of the report demonstrate how well Indian companies are doing in the UK. Equally, UK compa­nies are doing exceedingly well in India. The recent visit of Indian prime minister, Shri Narendra Modi gave a new focus to the UK India relationship.”

The high commissioner was joined by Mark Byers, a member of the senior leadership team and head of international at Grant Thornton.

Also present was Shuchita Sonalika, director and head of the CII in the UK, who is moving to Washing­ton to take charge of the CII in the US.

The home office dug in its heels and refused to give Sonalika a work visa for a year – even though part of her mission was to bring in much-needed Indian investment into the UK. The result was that her personal belongings, including her clothes, had to gather mold in a container in a dock, while Sona­lika flew in periodically from Delhi.

“At a time where the UK is forging a future outside of the EU, it will be looking to strengthen its ties with long-standing partners like India,” said Sonalika. “The Indian economy is forecast to grow substan­tially, and what the UK must focus on is both creat­ing new and maintaining existing investment oppor­tunities as it competes for India’s investment on a global platform.”

Her replacement as the CII’s representative in the UK, Lakshmi Kaul, will not have any visa problems because she is a UK resident.

Chande told the dinner: “As suggested in last year’s report, the Brexit uncertainties have had a limited impact on the Indian appetite for investment in the UK. There has really been no mass exodus that was anticipated or feared at the time of the Brexit.

“On the contrary, if you look at the M&A activity, four of the 10 largest European acquisitions by Indi­an companies were in the UK.”

He was not providing an endorsement for Brexit, however, Chande made clear.

“It is still too early to draw proper full conclusions (about the long-term consequences of Brexit) but what’s interesting is that business is almost continu­ing as normal in the sense that Indian companies have not suddenly done a mass exodus out of the UK. It is more of a wait and see campaign.”

That said, the companies had detected “a little degree of confidence in the UK remaining an impor­tant part of the European environment”.

When it was suggested that the majority of the 800 Indian companies had set up wholly-owned subsidi­aries in the UK with the aim of expanding into the much larger market that the European Union of­fered, Chande responded: “For some companies, yes, they came into the UK (seeing it) as a launch pad into Europe, but equally there are some companies – like Tech Mahindra when they bought the Target Group – that came in to buy the technology and de­sign experience.

“They did not necessarily come in for launching into Europe.”

The attitude of the Home Office is that instead of bringing in staff from India, the Indian companies could just as easily recruit equally competent staff in the UK.

Chande’s comment on this was: “That is already happening. If you talk to companies like Tech Mahi­ndra, they will say that particularly with the advan­tages of (UK) technology and block chain and every­thing else, there is more opportunity to actually re­cruit locally and not necessarily have to get people from India to come here. There is an increasing need for local recruitment. So you are going to see both.”

He emphasised that to the nearly 105,000 people employed by the UK, subsidiaries had to be added “20,000 to 25,000” staff employed by the British bran-ches of companies with head offices based in India.

This meant India had created about 130,000 jobs in the UK. This did not take into account the number created by British Indian companies.

On the advantages and disadvantages of Britain remaining inside the EU’s customs union, Chande agreed: “Most people would like a customs friendly situation – including India.”

Bur he also pointed out that if Britain was inside the customs union – as many MPS and peers of both the main parties now want – it might not have the freedom necessary to sign a Free Trade Agreement with India.

Chande said: “Obviously one needs to understand what impact that would have on trying to negotiate a separate trade agreement with India: whether that would be possible I don’t know. If you already have a customs union, whether you then have to join the EU in the agreement that the EU has with India, I don’t know. I don’t think anybody knows.”

At the dinner, four companies were praised for appearing in the Tracker for the fifth consecutive year – Accord Healthcare Ltd, Glenmark Pharma­ceuticals Europe Ltd, Milpharm Ltd, and Secure Meters (UK) Ltd.

Grant Thornton 2018 awards were also given for performance to Wipro, Union Bank of India, Accord Healthcare and Secure Meters.