Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Monday launched the National Monetisation Pipeline (NMP) worth Rs 6 lakh crore. The NMP comprises a four-year pipeline of the Centre’s brownfield infrastructure assets from FY22-FY25. Apart from providing visibility to investors, the NMP is envisaged to serve as a medium-term roadmap for identifying potential monetisation-ready projects across various infrastructure sectors. 

Speaking at the launch, Ms Sitharaman said that the Union Budget had identified infrastructure as the key focus for public expenditure. She added that there was no land involved in the NMP as the assets were brownfield. 

The finance minister said that public sector enterprises (PSEs) were ramping up capital expenditure (Capex) despite the second wave of COVID-19, and added that she would be monitoring that further. Ms Sitharaman said that the NMP would talk about those brownfield assets where the investment was already being made and where the assets were either languishing or not fully monetised or under-utilised. 

“By bringing in private sector participation, we are going to monetise it (assets) better and with whatever resource that you obtained by monetisation, you are able to put in for further investment into infrastructure building,” the minister noted. 

Ms Sitharaman said that the ownership of assets would remain with the government. “There will be a mandatory hand-back. They (private sector partners) will have to give it back after a certain time,” she added. Ms Sitharaman said that the time had come to make the most of the assets.

Explaining the scope of the NMP, NITI Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant in a statement said: “The NMP is aimed at creating a systematic and transparent mechanism for public authorities to monitor the performance of the initiative and for investors to plan their future activities. Asset Monetisation needs to be viewed not just as a funding mechanism but as an overall paradigm shift in infrastructure operations, augmentation and maintenance, considering the private sector’s resource efficiencies and its ability to dynamically adapt to the evolving global and economic reality.” 

“New models like Infrastructure Investment Trusts and Real Estate Investment Trusts will enable not just financial and strategic investors but also common people to participate in this asset class, thereby opening new avenues for investment. I hence consider the NMP document to be a critical step towards making India’s infrastructure truly world class,” he said. 

The NMP is a culmination of insights, feedback and experiences consolidated through multi-stakeholder consultations undertaken by NITI Aayog, Ministry of Finance and line ministries. Several rounds of discussion have been held by NITI Aayog with the stakeholders. The pipeline has been deliberated at length in inter-ministerial meeting chaired by the Cabinet Secretary. This is therefore a whole of a government initiative. 

Earlier this month, Department of Investment and Public Asset Management (DIPAM) Secretary Tuhin Kanta Pandey had said that the government was finalising infrastructure assets, including national highways and power grid pipelines, which would be monetised. 

The Union Budget 2021-22 has laid a lot of emphasis on asset monetisation as a means to raise innovative and alternative financing for infrastructure and includes a number of key announcements.