As India derivatives demand surges, it is Singapore that benefits

The swing shows how deeply a tax gaff last year damaged foreign investor sentiment and the cost to an economy that has seen growth tumble to around 5.5 per cent following the sharpest slowdown in a decade.

In the absence of big changes, particularly on tax, it will be difficult for India to attract the investment back when competing with an established international financial centre like Singapore, said fund manager Samir Arora.

“There is one big advantage of being here,” Arora, of Helios Capital Management, said. “You need investors, and investors pass through Singapore more than they pass through Mumbai.”

Investors have long complained of high taxes on portfolio investment in India, excessive caution towards derivatives and a poor track record in setting up new markets.

But India is now paying the price for poorly written rules last year aimed at ensnaring tax evaders, ironically including those routing investments through Singapore, which instead sparked outcry among foreign investors and an outflow of funds.

Finance Minister P Chidambaram, who met foreign investors in Asia and Europe last month, has vowed action to prevent the offshoring of Indian derivatives, although few expect significant announcements in a budget on Thursday to counter the trend.

He pledged in a speech in Mumbai this month to “find ways and means to bring the options markets back to India, or at least a substantial portion of options market back to India.”

A TALE OF TWO CITIES

Finding those ways and means may be easier said than done. Singapore is the main centre for trading rupee non-deliverable forwards, a type of derivative that allow foreign investors to trade currencies of countries that restrict access from abroad. They are settled in dollars, so there is no foreign exchange risk.

Volumes in rupee NDFs rose to a daily average of $7-$8 billion in 2012 from as low as $100 million in 2003, traders said, nearly equalling country’s onshore volumes for trading the currency on a spot basis.

What worries India is that Singapore markets are now attracting flows in other derivatives, creating not only a missed opportunity for India, but also the risk of a parallel overseas market offering arbitrage opportunities that distort domestic prices.

As India derivatives demand surges, it is Singapore that benefits