Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman will launch the National Monetisation Pipeline on August 23, listing out the Centre’s infrastructure assets to be sold over the next four years, according to the finance ministry. Besides providing visibility to investors, NMP will also serve as a medium-term roadmap for the asset monetisation initiative of the government.
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said assets being given out under the National Monetisation Pipeline will still be owned by the government, and will be returned to the government after a period of time. The government will not sell off any assets, but only utilise them in a better manner, the finance minister said and emphasised that the entire exercise will generate greater value and unlock resources for economy. 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. In her Budget speech, Sitharaman had said that monetising operating public infrastructure assets was a very important financing option for new infrastructure construction. She added that the pipeline will only include brownfield assets owned by the government and will not include land assets of the government.
