The government will quickly firm up a pipeline of infrastructure assets belonging to several departments and state-run entities for monetisation more than the next 3 years, junking the practice of drawing up brief-term or annual road maps, a senior official told FE.
The assets that would be up for grab by 2024 could quickly exceed Rs 2 lakh crore, despite the fact that a precise estimate will be firmed up after the drive to determine them is more than, stated one more official. The medium-term pipeline will allow investors to pick from a wider pool of assets and permit them more time for due diligence. The Centre has zeroed in on a clutch of assets, which includes pipelines of Indian Oil and GAIL and choose assets of Indian Railways, Delhi and Kolkata Metro rail systems and the Dedicated Rail Freight Corridor.
The concept is to enhance the non-debt capital receipts, which are at the moment raised solely by means of disinvestment of government stakes in central public sector undertakings (CPSEs). In parallel, the government has also adopted a policy of aggressive privatization of CPSEs, as it seeks to make up for the low tax income buoyancy in the brief term.
All infrastructure ministries have been directed to zero in on prospective assets for monetisation. Niti Aayog chief executive Amitabh Kant is driving this initiative. A dash board, along the lines of the one for the Rs 111-lakh-crore National Infrastructure Pipeline, will be set up exactly where the assets can be viewed by prospective investors.
Earlier, Niti Aayog had identified two lists of core assets, which includes 12 lots of highway bundles of 6,000 km to raise up to Rs 60,000 crore. Power Grid will provide transmission lines worth a total of Rs 20,000 crore in phases. Even private sector participation in the operating of about 150 passenger trains and redevelopment of 50 railway stations also featured in the government’s agenda.
A core group of secretaries for asset monetisation (CGAM), headed by the cabinet secretary, critiques the progress of this initiative.
In the Budget for FY22, finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced that National Highways Authority of India and Power Grid Corporation every single have sponsored one InvIT to draw investors. Five operational roads, with an estimated worth of Rs 5,000 crore are becoming transferred to the NHAI InvIT. Similarly, transmission assets worth Rs 7,000 crore will be transferred to the PGCIL InvIT, she stated. The next lot of airports will be monetised for operations and management concession.
Earlier, NITI Aayog had also advisable the monetisation of particular assets such as stadiums and tourism/mountain railways lines. The CGAM final year reviewed progress on monetisation of Jawaharlal Nehru Sports Stadium in New Delhi and 3 stadiums of railways (Karnail Singh Stadium, Waltair Stadium and Railway Indoor Sports Stadium) and 4 tourism/mountain railways at Darjeeling, Nilgiris, Kalka Simla and Matheran.
The Airports Authority of India is the only entity to have completed monetisation of six identified airports (Ahmedabad, Mangalore, Lucknow, Thiruvananthapuram, Jaipur and Guwahati) and is now gearing up for the next round.
FE had earlier reported that the shipping ministry was in the approach of recycling 11 assets, which includes 10 berths and lnternational Cruise Terminal at Goa Port.
As for the assets of central public-sector enterprises (CPSEs), although the government would retain one hundred% of the proceeds from monetisation of non-core assets of units identified for strategic sale and enemy properties, it could share a substantial chunk of the proceeds with CPSEs in case operational core assets are monetised. The proceeds to the Centre from asset monetisation would be counted as disinvestment receipts, which so far only integrated receipts from equity sales in CPSEs and other entities.