Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman to launch National Monetisation Pipeline on Aug 23

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The Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman will launch the National Monetisation pipeline (NMP) on Monday, August 23. The pipeline will list out the all government’s infrastructure assets which are to be sold over the next four years.

According to the public policy think tank, NITI Aayog, the NMP comprises a four-year pipeline of the central government’s brownfield infrastructure assets. Apart from providing visibility to investors, NMP will also serve as a medium-term roadmap for the asset monetisation initiative of the government. Asset monetisation was also emphasised in the Union Budget of 2021-22. The government aims to raise innovative and alternative financing for infrastructure through this.

The government is finalising Rs 6 lakh crore worth of infrastructure assets, including national highways and power grid pipelines, which would be monetised, according to Tuhin Kanta Pandey, Secretary, Department of Investment and Public Asset Management (DIPAM).

“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.

Finance minister Sitharaman had stressed monetising as important for financing infrastructure in her Union budget speech. She said that by monetising operating public infrastructure the government can achieve a 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,” she had said.

Asset monetisation is not just a funding option but the government views it as a strategy for the augmentation and maintenance of infrastructure.

The NMP book will be released in the presence of Niti Aayog Vice Chairman Rajiv Kumar, Niti Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant, and Secretaries of relevant ministries whose assets constitute the monetisation pipeline.