Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman launches National Monetisation Pipeline

Union Minister for Finance and Corporate Affairs Nirmala Sitharaman launched the National Monetisation Pipeline NMP on Monday in New Delhi. NMP comprises a four-year pipeline of the Central Government's brownfield infrastructure assets.

Besides providing visibility to investors, NMP will also serve as a medium-term roadmap for the Asset Monetisation initiative of the Government.

Finance Minster Nirmala Sitharaman's office in a tweet said, "This Asset Monetisation Pipeline is talking about brownfield assets which need to be better monetised. Ownership of assets remains with the govt. There will be a mandatory hand-back; they will have to give it back after a certain time: Smt @nsitharaman."

Speaking on the occasion, Ms Sitharaman said, National Motenisation Pipeline talks about brownfield assets where investment is already being made and where there are assets either languishing or not fully monetized or under-utilized. She said, brownfield infrastructure needs to be better monetized.

The finance minister said, by bringing in private participation, the Government is going to monetize assets better and with whatever resource obtained by monetization, Government will be able to put in for further investment into infrastructure building.

NITI Aayog Vice-Chairman Dr Rajiv Kumar said, the strategic objective of the Asset Monetisation programme is to unlock the value of investments in public sector assets by tapping private sector capital and efficiencies which can thereafter be leveraged for augmentation or greenfield infra creation.

He said, the thrust on Asset Monetisation emanates from the need to avail innovative financing mechanisms for capital asset creation so that the budgetary resources of the Government can be deployed for the more emergent social sector and the economic stimulus priorities.

Giving a presentation, NITI Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant said, infra-assets worth Rs six lakh crore across rail, road, power sectors to be monetised over four years.

The NMP will serve as a roadmap for asset monetisation of various brownfield infrastructure assets across sectors including roads, railways, aviation, power, oil and gas, and warehousing.

The government has planned a 6-trillion rupees pipeline of assets that can be monetised, which will include a range of assets put on the block for private sector participation. The government has also developed an asset monetisation dashboard for monitoring the real-time progress of NMP.

The portal has been prepared as the government tries to provide a one-stop-shop to investors keen on taking over assets of government departments and ministries. Policy think tank NITI Aayog has finalised the NMP of potential brownfield infrastructure assets that have been created for a four-year period from the financial year 2021-22 to 2024-25.