After the Centre’s assets monetisation plan crossed the target in FY21-22, the government is upbeat about exceeding the target in current fiscal as well for which plans worth ₹1.6-lakh crore are at advance stages of clearance.

“The monetisation target for this year is ₹1.67-lakh crore and we are confident of achieving it,” a top official of NITI Aayog said. There are several new companies who came on board last year and the message has gone well about the opportunities in the country on monetisation plan, the official said.

The National Monetisation Pipeline (NMP) of the government has been criticised by the Opposition as selling off national assets which the official denied. He said several new companies had participated in the NMP projects last year. Utilico, Secura, CPP Investments, Ontario Teachers, Matthews Asia and Fidelity are some of the companies that were successful in securing the NMP projects last year.

Finance Minister review

Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman held a review meeting on asset monetisation on Tuesday in which various ministries made their presentations on the plans to meet target, sources said.

For FY21-22, the target was ₹88,190 crores whereas the government was able to generate about ₹96,000 crore from the plan led by projects in road, power, coal and mining sectors (95 per cent of total realisation), he said adding, long-term impact of those investments would yield in ₹9-lakh crore. In fact the achievement was made in seven months as the NMP was launched in last week of August, 2021, he said. Under NMP, the Centre targets to generate ₹6-lakh crore between 2021-22 and 2024-25 to unlock value in infrastructure assets across sectors.

‘Identify quick-win assets’

“The Minister directed secretaries of those ministries, which could not meet monetisation target, to expeditiously identify quick-win assets and roll out transactions,” the official said. Apart from those ministries which led the monetisation plan last year, top officials from Railways, Petroleum and Natural Gas, Sports and Food were also present at the review meeting.

The Road Transport and Highways Ministry achieved ₹23,000 crore in NMP while other good performers included Ministry of Power generating ₹9,500 crore including ₹1,000 crore from NHPC’s one hydel project. Also, the Ministry of Coal generated ₹40,000 crore and Ministry of Mines ₹18,700 crore.

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