The private participants will have to hand over the assets to the government after a period of time The government will only monetise under-utilised assets and the ownership will remain with the centre, the finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman said while unveiling the Rs 6 lakh crore National Monetisation Pipeline.
"National Monetisation Pipeline talks about brownfield assets where investment is already being made, where there are assets either languishing or not fully monetised or under-utilised, Nirmala Sitharaman emphasised.
The brownfield assets will be monetisatised by bringing in private participation.
The private participants will have to hand over the assets to the government after a pre-determined period of time.The money obtained through the monetization exercise will be channelisedinto infrastructure building.Theentire exercise "will generate greater value and unlock resources for economy," the finance minister pointed out.Infra assets worth Rs 6 lakh crore will be monetised across the rail, road and power sectors over 4 years and "projects have been identified to monetise the assets" NITI Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant highlighted.The government will monetise assets worth Rs 1.6 lakh crore from the roads sector, Rs 1.5 lakh crore from the railway sector and Rs 79,000 crore from the power sector, Mr Kant said.
The centre will also monetise Rs 20,800 crore from airports, Rs 13,000 crore from ports, Rs 35,000 crore from telecom, Rs 11,500 crore from stadiums and Rs 45,200 crore from power transmission sectors.Most of the assetmonetisation will take place either through the InvIT mode or public-private partnerships.The government iscommitted to involve the private sector and private capital to develop infrastructure, the Niti Aayog Vice Chairman Rajiv Kumar said.Infrastructure has huge multiplier effects and the monetisation pipeline is the next step in mobilising private capital for the development of infrastructure, Mr Kumar added.Theministries of roads, transport - highways, railways, power, pipeline - natural gas, civil aviation, shipping ports - waterways, telecommunications, food - public distribution, mining, coal, housing and urban affairs will bea part of the National Monetisation Pipeline, theFinance Ministryelaborated.Nirmala Sitharaman Sitharaman had first spoke of a National Monetisation Pipeline during Union Budget 2021 andasserted that the government was looking at innovative ways to raise finances.Asset monetisation is the process of creating new sources of revenues by unlocking the value of unutilised andunderutilised public assets, according to the Department of Investment and Public Asset Management website.