BackFM Sitharaman to announce infra assets on the block on Monday
Centre plans to use the funds generated from the asset sales for further infra creationNHAI’s operational toll roads, PGCIL’s transmission lines, oil & gas pipelines of GAIL, Indian Oil, and HPCL will be among the assets to be monetized
PremiumNEW DELHI : Union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman will on Monday announce the assets that will be put on the block as part of the government’s asset monetization programme. Federal policy think tank NITI Aayog said the national asset monetization pipeline or NMP comprises a four-year pipeline of the Centre’s brownfield infrastructure assets. It will provide visibility to investors and serve as a medium-term road map for the asset monetization initiative of the government, NITI Aayog said.
The think tank said that the FY22 Union budget had laid emphasis on asset monetization as a means to raise innovative and alternative financing for infrastructure. Sitharaman will release the pipeline in the presence of NITI Aayog vice chairman Rajiv Kumar, chief executive officer Amitabh Kant and other senior officials.
Sitharaman had said in her budget speech that a dashboard will be created for tracking the progress of asset sale. The assets that will form a part of this database include select infrastructure units of the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI), Power Grid Corporation of India Ltd (PGCIL), Railways, the Airport Authority of India Ltd (AAI) and state-run energy firms. Railways will monetize dedicated freight corridor assets for operations and maintenance, after commissioning, Sitharaman said.
NHAI’s operational toll roads, PGCIL’s transmission lines, oil and gas pipelines of GAIL Ltd, Indian Oil Corp. Ltd, and Hindustan Petroleum Corp. Ltd (HPCL), warehousing assets of state-owned firms and sports stadiums will also be among the assets to be monetized. The government plans to use the funds generated from asset sales for further infrastructure creation, which could have a multiplier effect on the economy.
The Centre’s pipeline of identified 7,000 ongoing and greenfield infrastructure projects entails an investment of ₹111 trillion. Monetizing assets carved out from state-run enterprises could fund these projects, but the government expects the private sector to bring efficiency in managing these assets well. The Centre is also seeking the cooperation of states in asset monetization given the experience of litigation in the airport privatization effort.
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