Finance Ministry to seek Cabinet nod for setting up company to monetise land assets of privatisation-bound CPSEs

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitaraman.

The finance ministry will soon move the Cabinet to seek approval for setting up a company for transfer and subsequent monetisation of land and non-core assets of privatisation-bound CPSEs, an official said.

A special purpose vehicle (SPV) in the form of a company would be set up to hold these assets which would be monetised to fetch value to the exchequer, Department of Investment and Public Asset Management (DIPAM) Secretary Tuhin Kanta Pandey said.

''We are talking about a company which will be there for many years, which will specialise in handling surplus land and non-core asset monetisation. We are expecting it shortly. As soon as we get Cabinet approval,'' Pandey told PTI.

There are some CPSEs for strategic disinvestment and ''we feel certain portion of land is not really worth going with the company and those assets could be monetised'', he said.

Post Cabinet nod, the Department of Public Enterprises (DPE), which is now under the Ministry of Finance, will be entrusted with doing the asset monetisation.

The government is targeting to conclude strategic sale of BPCL, Shipping Corporation of India, IDBI Bank, BEML, Pawan Hans, Neelachal Ispat Nigam Ltd, this fiscal.

In the 2021-22 Budget, the government announced the PSE (public sector enterprises) privatisation policy as per which all PSUs will be privatised, barring four strategic sectors of Atomic energy, Space and Defence; Transport and Telecommunications; Power, Petroleum, Coal and other minerals; and Banking, Insurance and financial services.

In these strategic sectors, the government will retain only a bare minimum number of PSUs.