Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has launched the National Monetisation Pipeline today — a four-year road map for the central government’s sale of infrastructure assets. The government has announced Rs 6 lakh crore National Monetisation Plan.
The planned sales are in line with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s strategic divestment policy, under which the state will retain presence in only a few identified sectors with the rest privatized.
The National Monetisation Pipeline (NMP) plan will cover a wide array of sectors ranging from road and railway assets, and airports to power transmission lines and gas pipelines.
Here’s a list of assets that will be a part of Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman’s vision for the next 4 years of National Monetisation Pipeline.
Speaking on the occasion, NITI Aayog Chief Executive Amitabh Kant said that the National Monetisation Pipeline is to unlock the value of government investment and public money in infrastructure.
Niti Aayog to handhold ministries on asset monetisation, said Kant.
We are fully committed to delivering success to the National Motenisation Pipeline. We feel that it is very important to bring in the private sector for better operation & maintenance, therefore we are committed to very strong delivery on the ground, Kant further added.
The thrust on Asset Monetisation emanates from the need to avail innovative financing mechanisms for capital asset creation so that the budgetary resources of the Govt can be deployed for the more emergent social sector and the #economic stimulus priorities, said Niti Aayog VC Rajiv Kumar.
FM Sitharaman says only under-utilised assets will be monitised
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman while explaining the purpose of the NMP said that “for those who have this question in mind — are we selling away the lands? No. National Monetization Pipeline is talking about brownfield assets that need to be better monetized.”
By bringing in private participation, we are going to monetize it (assets) better and with whatever resource that you obtained by monetization, you are able to put in for further investment into infrastructure building, FM Sitharaman added.
Ownership of assets remains with the government. There will be a mandatory hand back. They (private sector partners) will have to give it back after a certain time, the Finance Minister said after launching National Monetisation Pipeline
National Motenisation Pipeline talks about brownfield assets where investment is already being made, where there are assets either languishing or not fully monetized or under-utilized, FM said.
It is important that India recognizes that the time has come for making the most out of our assets, says the Finance Minister.
NMP has also been designed to attract more investors to the country and encourage alternative financing for infrastructure assets.
In the Union Budget for 2021-22, the Finance Minister had made a lot of significant announcements regarding asset monetisation and stressed on the fact that the government is looking at innovative ways to raise finances.
Asset monetisation is the process of creating new sources of revenues by unlocking the value of unutilised and underutilised public assets, according to the Department of Investment and Public Asset Management website.
Under NMP, the Centre is finalising Rs 6 lakh crore worth of infrastructure assets, including national highways, mobile towers, stadia, railway stations as well as power grid pipelines among other key assets, which it plans to monetise.
