... asset management plans

The writer takes us through the National Monetisation Pipeline and sector-wise allocations

The government has set up a target to make India a $5 trillion economy. To achieve this goal, it is targeting to unlock optimal value from public sector assets which have not yielded potential return or which are sub-optimally utilised, by the way of ‘asset monetisation’. It has set an aggressive target of raising around ₹6 lakh crore under the National Monetization Pipeline (NMP). The National Infrastructure Pipeline (NIP) envisages infrastructure investment of ₹111 lakh crore over a five-year period between FY 2020 and FY 2025.

With an annual average investment of ₹22 lakh crore, this is a significant step-up (~2.5 times) vis-à-vis historical levels of spending on infrastructure. Investment in infrastructure is directly proportional to the growth in GDP/ economy of a country. It will also lead to a multiplier effect on the local economy to boost retail, real estate, tourism and generate employment opportunities and also unlock public sector potential, tapping private sector efficiencies through Public-Private Partnership (PPP) and create critical sources of revenue.

Under the National Asset Monetisation Policy, the assets are divided into two categories: core and non-core assets.Core assets include sports assets such as stadiums, highway operational toll roads, power transmission assets, oil and gas pipelines, airports, telecom assets, warehousing assets. Non-core assets comprise land, office space, factories, commercial spaces, properties belonging to the railways, defence and a number of PSUs.