Road, power in ₹26,000 cr worth asset monetisation in FY22: Dipam Secy

In the first year after the announcement of the mega asset monetisation measure by the Centre in last year's budget, the government has monetised assets worth ₹26,000 crore this year. The monetisation agenda has been led by the roads sector, followed by power and mining.

In an interaction with Fortune India, secretary, Department of Investment and Public Asset Management (Dipam), Tuhin Kanta Pandey says, "There are different models and different ministries are doing it. Monetisation worth ₹26,000 crore has already been done this year. It's led by roads with ₹10,000 crore plus."

"In the power sector, assets worth over ₹7,700 crore have been monetised this year. In the aviation sector, monetisation worth ₹1,336 crore has been done, while the shipping sector has seen ₹900 crore worth assets sale. ₹800 crore has been received in the food and public distribution," says Pandey.

Another ₹4,000 crore has been concluded via mineral development model in the mining sector, wherein the party pays for the capital expenditure in lieu of a consideration of a revenue share. "This is essentially sourcing a capital expenditure in an indirect way from the private sector which the agency ought to have paid. Asset monetisation is largely to improve the capex or the management," says Pandey. Niti Aayog is monitoring the asset monetisation process.

The railway ministry seems to have been a laggard when it comes to monetisation as it has done transactions to the tune of ₹400 crore only so far in the current financial year. Railway ministry has been able to put out the Habibganj railway station, and several housing colonies on the block so far. It may be noted that when the announcement pertaining to asset monetisation was done in the budget last year, railway projects like railways station modernisation, dedicated freight corridors, and railway stadiums were seen with a lot of prospects.

The government is also now working on monetisation of hydrogen pipeline and gas pipeline.

Through asset monetisation, the central government hopes to garner ₹6 lakh crore in the next five years.

On the land monetisation front too -- which is part of the non core asset sale – tendering is under process for sale of land parcels belonging to MTNL and BSNL. The government has issued tenders for four land parcels belonging to BSNL and two belonging to MTNL in November last year.