FM Nirmala Sitharaman to launch national infrastructure monetization plan on August 23

Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman

Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman will launch the National Monetisation Pipeline (NMP) at New Delhi on August 23. With this, the government is aiming to list out its infrastructure assets to be sold over the next four-years.

Apart from providing visibility to investors, the NMP will also serve as a medium-term roadmap for the asset monetisation initiative of the union government, said an official press release.

The NMP comprises a four-year pipeline of the government's brownfield infrastructure assets. In the Union Budget 2021-22, the government laid a lot of emphasis on asset monetisation as a means to raise innovative and alternative financing for infrastructure, and included a number of key announcements.

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Department of Investment and Public Asset Management (DIPAM) Secretary Tuhin Kanta Pandey had earlier this month said that the government is finalising Rs 6 lakh crore worth infrastructure assets, including national highways and power grid pipelines, which would be monetised.

"A national monetisation plan of about Rs 6 trillion is in the offing which will have a range of assets from pipelines to power grid pipelines to national highways, ToT (toll-operate-transfer) and so on," Pandey had said.

In her Budget speech, the FM had said, "Monetising operating public infrastructure assets is a very important financing option for new infrastructure construction. A 'National Monetisation Pipeline' of potential brownfield infrastructure assets will be launched. An Asset Monetisation dashboard will also be created for tracking the progress and to provide visibility to investors.”

Asset monetisation is the process of conversion of assets, in this case contracts to build highways, bridges, roads, etc, into economic value.

As part of this ambitious plan, the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways has been set a target to raise Rs 30,000 crore through asset monetisation over the next three years.

Along with FM Sitharaman, NITI Aayog's Vice Chairman Dr Rajiv Kumar and CEO Amitabh Kant, will be present at the launch.