Former finance minister and senior Congress leader P Chidambaram on Friday lashed out at Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led BJP government at the Centre over its decision to monetise the underutilised public assets.
Terming the ‘National Monetisation Pipeline’ a daylight robbery, Chidambaram said that the Centre is selling all that has been built over 70 years.
“Assets are giving a current revenue. FM says – I’ll get Rs 1.5 Lakh Cr. But she should also say what’s the current revenue. Suppose for the sake of argument, current revenue is Rs 1.6 lakh crore,” ANI quoted the Congress leader as saying.
“She’ll privatise it and get only Rs 1.5 lakh crore. Assume the current revenue is Rs 1.3 lakh crore, she’s only getting an additional Rs 20,000 crore. For the sake of Rs 20,000 crore, you’ll sell all that has been built over 70 years? This is scandalous. This is daylight robbery,” Chidambaram added.
Reacting to the criticism surrounding National Monetisation Pipeline, Principal Economic Advisor Sanjeev Sanyal clarified that the government owns a large number of assets. “If the government can monetize them and raise resources so that we can invest in new infrastructure or provide support to vulnerable sections of economy or society, then what is wrong with that?” said Sanyal.
Modi govt’s National Monetisation Pipeline
Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman had on Monday unveiled the National Monetisation Pipeline (NMP) that included unlocking value by involving private companies across infrastructure sectors.
A total of 25 Airports Authority of India (AAI) airports, including the ones at Chennai, Bhopal, Varanasi and Vadodara, as well as 40 railway stations, 15 railway stadiums and an unidentified number of railway colonies have been identified for getting private investments.
On Tuesday, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi came down heavily upon the Central government over its infrastructure monetisation plan, saying that the ruling dispensation is in the process of selling “India’s crown jewels built by previous govternments with public money over 70 years”.
