FY25 monetisation target to be raised to Rs 2 trillion
After the general elections, the ministries have been sensitised about their goals as well and the revised plan will likely be firmed up shortly, the official said.
The Centre will likely ramp up its target for monetisation of brownfield assets in the current finacial year to a record Rs 2 trillion in 2024-25, up from the original goal of Rs 1.67 trillion, in a move that will help ease the pressure on the Budget funds for infrastructure and welfare measures over the medium term.
It had set an ambitious Rs 6 trillion asset recycling target under the National Monetisation Pipeline (NMP) over the four years through FY25, by monetisation (long-term leasing) of operational assets in sectors like roads, mining, power, petroleum and airports.
“After making considerable progress in the asset monetisation programme in the last three years and a robust pipeline, we aim to achieve close to Rs 2 trillion in the current financial year,” a senior official said.
After the general elections, the ministries have been sensitised about their goals as well and the revised plan will likely be firmed up shortly, the official said.
Despite railways lagging massively compared to its share in overall asset monetisation, the NMP achievement has been Rs 3.85 trillion or 90% of the Rs 4.3 trillion targeted in the first three years in upfront revenues, as well as revenue sharing from operations and capex from private parties.
Also ReadMonetisation of The Ashok: Govt to kick-start process soon, deal likely in FY25
For the fourth year in a row, the monetisation of coal and other mining assets is expected to fetch more than 61,000 crore in FY25 as against the original target of Rs 10,600 crore. The mining sector had yielded upfront revenues and capital expenditure to the tune of Rs 58,000 crore in FY22, Rs 60,000 crore in FY23 and Rs 60,884 crore in FY24.
“In coal and other mining, we will do much more than what we achieved in FY24 which was to some extent affected by model code of conduct for general elections,” another official said.
While the target for this segment was enhanced to Rs 37,500 crore from the initial goal of Rs 6,060 crore for FY23, the achievement came in at around Rs 60,000 crore in upfront revenues and capex. In FY22 also, the mining sector had yielded upfront revenues and capital expenditure to the tune of Rs 58,000 crore against the target of Rs 3,394 crore.
Another sector that will continue its robust monetisation drive is the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI). NHAI has identified 33 highway stretches with a total length of 2741 km spread all over India for monetisation in 2024-25. It could raise Rs 54,000-60,000 crore from monetisation of functional road assets through InVIT and Toll Operate Transfer route, and project based financing which will be its highest ever in a year. It raised Rs 40,314 crore in FY24.
Another sector that will likely see some action in FY25 is leasing out nearly half a dozen airports for operation, management and development under PPP. These include Bhubaneswar, Varanasi, Amritsar, Raipur, Indore and Trichy.
Among others, asset recycling in power transmission, power generation, natural gas exploration and port infrastructure is expected to do well in FY25, sources said.
The NMP aim was to mobilise resources to the tune of 5.4% of the total infrastructure investment envisaged under the National Infrastructure Pipeline (NIP) which is Rs 111 trillion lakh crore and ~14% of the proposed outlay for Centre (Rs 43 trillion) in five years through FY25.
This was first of its kind approach to streamline asset monetisation as a tool to generate resources for more infrastructure investment in a sustainable way.