India to monetize public assets worth $ 34.5 bn |
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on 24th February announced investment opportunities worth 34.5 billion Dollars in the national asset monetization pipeline outlined in the Union budget, through the sale of assets of around 100 central public sector enterprises. Speaking at a webinar on privatization and asset monetization, PM Modi said, “Today, there are many underutilized and unutilized assets under the control of the government. We have set the target to monetize around 100 assets in oil, gas, port, airport and power sectors. This process will continue in future also. The government is moving ahead with the mantra of `monetize and modernize`.”. The webinar was attended by investment bankers, sovereign and pension funds as well as domestic and international investors. Modi said, “it is not necessary or possible for the government to remain the owner of many CPSEs, and the government should instead focus on public welfare and development. That`s why I say the government has no business to remain in business,". Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman unveiled a PSE policy providing a road map for disinvestment in all non-strategic and four strategic sectors. She said the government aims to keep the “bare minimum" CPSEs in four strategic sectors and privatize the rest or close down unviable ones. The four buckets of strategic sectors are atomic energy, space and defence; transport and telecommunications; power, petroleum, coal and other minerals; banking, insurance and financial services. Modi said the Financial year (FY 22) budget has put forward a clear road map to put the economy on a high-growth trajectory and the PSE policy aims at the right utilization of public money. He added the “There are many PSE which are loss-making. Many of them need to be supported by taxpayers` money. The money on which poor and youth have the right is spent on these enterprises and because of this, the CPSEs also prove to be a burden," . Modi said the government will ensure transparency, competition, stable policies and processes for the medium-term strategic disinvestment policy unveiled in the budget.
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