“During FY22, transactions aggregating to about ₹96,000 crore of accrual or investments by central and state government entities have been completed under the core asset monetisation programme,” the official said. “This will have a cumulative investment potential of ₹9 lakh crore over the years.”
Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman Tuesday undertook the sector-wise review on asset monetisation plan with NITI Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant and top officials of the concerned infrastructure ministries and deliberated on strategy for the next fiscal.
Officials said the figure could touch ₹1 lakh crore as data was still trickling in and was yet to be finalised. The National Monetisation Pipeline was launched in August 2021.
The other key investors that participated in the monetisation programme included Capital Group, Utilico Emerging Markets Trust, Fidelity Investments, Matthews Asia, SBI Mutual Fund and HDFC Mutual Fund among others.
Sector-wise break-up
The roads and highways sector monetised assets worth ₹23,000 crore, power sector garnered ₹9,500 crore, coal mining generated ₹40,000 crore and mining of minerals fetched ₹18,700 crore, a top official told ET.
Asset monetisation transactions completed in the road sector included 390 km of road under InvIT mode and bidding out of three toll-operate-transfer (TOT) bundles. In the power sector, transmission assets of PowerGrid and one operational hydel project of NHPC were monetised.
Further, 22 coal blocks and award of mining, developing and operating (MDO) contracts by the coal ministry were monetised while 31 mineral blocks were auctioned last year.
On Target
The government has set a target of ₹6 lakh crore through asset monetisation in FY22-25 with FY23 target pegged at ₹1.67 lakh crore.
“We are confident of surpassing the current year’s target as well with proposals worth ₹1.63 lakh crore of accruals and investments in pipeline and at various stages of processing,” the official added.
The government has already identified key projects across half-a-dozen states where it will focus in the current fiscal while hand-holding other ministries and departments like the railways and warehousing that have progressed but failed to achieve their targets. “The ministry-wise targets for 2021-22, which have not been achieved, will be carried forward to 2022-23,” the official added.
