Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman to launch National Monetisation Pipeline today

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman will launch the National Monetisation Pipeline (NMP) in New Delhi today. NMP comprises a four-year pipeline of the Central Government's brownfield infrastructure assets.

Besides providing visibility to investors, NMP will also serve as a medium-term road map for the asset monetisation initiative of the government.

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.

Union Budget 2021-22 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. Finance Minister Sitharaman in her Budget speech said, monetization of operating public infrastructure assets was a very important financing option for new infrastructure construction. She said, "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."

The government views asset monetisation as a strategy for the augmentation and maintenance of infrastructure, and not just a funding mechanism.

The National Monetisation Pipeline book will be released in the presence of Vice Chairman of NITI Aayog, Dr Rajiv Kumar, CEO, Shri Amitabh Kant, and Secretaries of relevant line ministries whose assets constitute the monetisation pipeline.