- Friday, April 26, 2024
By: Shubham Ghosh
THE Narendra Modi government on Monday (23) said it will monetise assets worth Rs 600,000 crore (£59 billion) between 2021-22 and 2024-25 under the National Monetisation Pipeline (NMP) scheme. It was launched by Union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman in New Delhi.
She said assets being given out under the NMP will still be owned by the government and returned to the government after a period of time. The finance minister added that the government will not sell off any assets but only utilise them in a better manner. She also said that the entire exercise will generate a greater value and unlock resources for the economy.
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Sitharaman also mentioned that only under-utilised brownfield assets owned by the government will be included under the pipeline and not land assets.
Amitabh Kant, the chief executive of NITI Aayog, the Indian government’s public policy think-tank, said at the scheme’s launching event that the central government has set a goal of Rs 88,000 crore (£8.6 billion) to be monetised in 2021-22. He added an annual target has been set for each ministry and this will be monitored through a dashboard.
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In case a ministry struggles to meet its annual target, the NITI Aayog and finance ministry will help it monetise the assets. According to Kant, the plan was devised after extensive consultations with concerned parties and it would “unlock value of government investment and public money in infrastructure”.
The NITI Aayog CEO also said that under the NMP plan, assets worth Rs 20,800 crore (£2 billion) from the aviation sector will be monetised. Besides, assets worth Rs 35,100 crore (£3.4 billion) will be monetised from the telecom sector.
The government will also monetise assets worth Rs 150,000 crore (£14.7 billion) from railway sector, Rs 160,000 crore (£15.7 billion)from roads sector and Rs 45,200 crore (£4.4 billion) from power transmission sector respectively, he added.
“Fifteen railway stadiums, 25 airports and the stake of central government in existing airports and 160 coal mining projects will be up for monetisation,” he said.
“We are fully committed to delivering success to the National Monetisation Pipeline. We feel that it is very important to bring in the private sector for better operation and maintenance, therefore we are committed to very strong delivery on the ground,” he added.
Sitharaman said the central government will also incentivise state governments to monetise their assets. She said the central government has already set aside Rs 5,000 crore to give incentive to the state governments to monetise their assets.
“By bringing in private participation, we are going to monetise it (assets) better and with whatever resource that you obtained by monetisation, you are able to put in for further investment into infrastructure building,” the finance minister said. She also added that the NMP will help improve liquidity to raise government expenditure in infrastructure.
In the Union Budget of 2021-22, the central government stressed on asset monetisation as a means to raise innovative and alternative financing for infrastructure, and made a number of key announcements.
