The Centre is looking at allowing non-resident Indians to subscribe to municipal bonds issued by various urban local bodies, especially for ‘Swachh Bharat’ projects.

“The Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs is currently looking at letting a part of these bonds be issued for subscription by overseas Indians, specifically for Swachh Bharat activities,” according to Manoj Bharti, Additional Secretary, Ministry of External Affairs.

Municipal bonds are debt obligations issued by municipal bodies and municipal corporates to fund day-to-day needs and to finance capital projects such as roads, bridges and schools. NRIs, at present, are not allowed to participate in these bonds. “The MEA had recommended that overseas Indians be issued municipal bonds, and the MoHUA has responded positively. But details such as the number of bonds NRIs will be allowed to subscribe to has to be decided by the MoHUA together with the States,” a government official told BusinessLine .

NRI task force

The suggestion to allow overseas Indians to subscribe to municipal bonds was made by the taskforce on waste management at a Pravasi Bhartiya Divas conference in July last year. The task force includes NRI experts on various aspects of waste management.

The taskforce met again at the ongoing Pravasi Bhartiya Divas conclave, in Varanasi, on Tuesday, where the MEA gave a presentation on the action taken so far on last year’s recommendations. Although municipal bonds have had limited success in India so far, recent initiatives by States such as Gujarat, Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh are showing encouraging results.

Recently, Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation raised municipal bonds worth ₹200 crore that matures in five years.

Last year, the NRI taskforce had also suggested that overseas Indians be allotted contaminated dump sites with a clause to remediate the sites and convert them into clean land to establish suitable industries.

Listing out the action taken on the recommendation, Bharti said the States and urban local bodies have come out with various projects and were issuing tenders. “The diaspora can participate in their Expression of Interests (EoIs) and tenders,” he said.

Specifically, Kerala has invited EoIs for an integrated solid waste management and a waste-to-energy project in Kozhikode. Gujarat, too, has called for EoIs for the design, engineering and commissioning of municipal solid waste collection and processing facilities, he added.

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