Finance Minister Sitharaman unveils National Monetisation Pipeline scheme
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Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said assets being given out under the National Monetisation Pipeline would still be owned by the government, and would be returned to the government after a period of time.
The government would not sell off any assets, but only utilise them in a better manner, the Finance Minister said. She emphasised that the entire exercise would generate greater value and unlock resources for economy.
She said the pipeline would only include brownfield assets owned by the government and would not include land assets of the government.
Speaking at launch event, NITI Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant said the government would monetise assets worth Rs 6,00,000 crore between 2021-22 and 2024-25 under the scheme. The Central Government had set a goal of Rs 88,000 crore to be monetised in 2021-22. Each ministry had been given an annual target, and this would be monitored through a dashboard.
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In case a ministry is struggling to meet its annual target, the NITI Aayog and the Ministry of Finance would help the ministry monetise assets.
Assets worth Rs 20,800 crore from the aviation sector would be monetised, while assets worth Rs 35,100 crore would be monetised from the telecom sector under the plan. Apart from this, the government would monetise assets worth Rs 150,000 crore from railway sector, Rs 160,000 crore from roads sector and Rs 45,200 crore from power transmission sector.
The Finance Minister said the Central Government would incentive state governments to monetise their assets as well. Sitharaman said that the Central Government had already set aside Rs 5,000 crore to incentive state governments to monetise their assets.
-PTC News with inputs from agencies
