FM rolls out Rs 6 lakh crore National Monetisation Plan

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Monday announced a Rs 6 lakh crore National Monetisation Pipeline (NMP) that will look to unlock value in infrastructure assets across sectors ranging from power to road and railways. 

She also said the asset monetisation does not involve selling of land and it is about monetising brownfield assets. 

Projects have been identified across sectors, with roads, railways and power being the top segments. 

“NMP estimates aggregate monetisation potential of Rs 6 lakh crores through core assets of central government over the four-year period from FY 2022 to FY 2025,” she said. “Ownership of assets will remain with the government and there will be a mandatory hand-back.” 

Asset monetisation will unlock resources and lead to value unlocking, she said. Union Budget 2021-22 had identified monetisation of operating public infrastructure assets as a key means for sustainable infrastructure financing. 

Towards this, the Budget provided for preparation of a ‘’National Monetisation Pipeline’’ of potential brownfield infrastructure assets. NITI Aayog in consultation with infra line ministries has prepared the report on NMP. The aggregate asset pipeline under NMP over the four-year period is indicatively valued at Rs 6 lakh crore. The estimated value corresponds to 14 per cent of the proposed outlay for Centre under the National Infrastructure Pipeline (Rs 43 lakh crore). 

The end objective of this initiative is to enable “infrastructure creation through monetisation” wherein the public and private sector collaborate, each excelling in their core areas of competence, so as to deliver socio-economic growth and quality of life to the country’s citizens, she added. Meanwhile, Sitharaman met Salil Parekh, CEO of Infosys, at her office here and sought to know the reasons for not resolving the snags in the portal even after two-and-a-half-months since its launch, official sources said. 

Parekh and his team are believed to have given a road map for fixing the problems. The income tax e-filing portal is now live after remaining unavailable for around two days. Infosys, the developer of the portal, informed about this through a tweet. The tweet came after the Finance Ministry summoned the CEO of the software major over the continuing glitches in the portal. “The emergency maintenance of the @IncomeTaxIndia portal has concluded and the portal is live. We regret any inconvenience caused to taxpayers,” the company said in a tweet late on Sunday evening. 

Infra assets worth Rs 6 lakh crore across rail, road, power sectors to be monetised over 4 years, said NITI Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant. “We are fully committed to delivering success to the National Motenisation Pipeline. We feel 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.” Rajiv Kumar, VC, NITI Aayog said “It’s a remarkable step forward and it is all been assured by the FM’s budget of 2021-22.” This is the next step in mobilising private capital for the development of infrastructure