Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday addressed key stakeholders including officials of sovereign funds, private equity, global pension funds, investment banks and asset monetisation companies on the opportunities ahead, as the government has a massive plan to monetise public sector assets and privatise state-run firms.

While the government will likely achieve the brownfield asset monetisation target of Rs 88,000 crore for FY22, the target for next year is almost double of that at Rs 1.62 lakh crore. Assets on offer include highways stretches, ports, airports, railway stations and trains, among others

Monetisation of brownfield public-sector assets including coal blocks, various non-coal mines, highway stretches and power transmission lines, are set to either meet or even significantly exceed the respective targets for the current financial year, an official source had told FE. However, the railways may miss the sectoral target by a wide margin. In aggregate, revenues to be mobilised via this route could still be marginally above the target of Rs 88,200 crore in FY22, the first year of the National Monetisation Pipeline (NMP), the source added.

Immediately after the Narendra Modi government unveiled the NMP in August 2021, this ambitious project to boost non-debt capital receipts in the government sector got off to a quick start.

The NMP seeks to generate upfront revenues of `6 lakh crore in four years starting FY22, out of operational infrastructure projects, under various innovative long-term lease plans that don’t require the government to cede ownership of the assets much.

Wednesday’s webinar was the last of a series of 11 Budget-related webinars that the PM addressed. These webinars saw estimated participation of around 40,000 stakeholders which included entrepreneurs, MSMEs, exporters, global investors, representatives of the Central and state governments and start-ups, among others, the government said in a statement.

Consultation with various stakeholders would help bring global expertise/experience and identify lacunae for smooth implementation of budget plans. The Department of Investment and Public Asset management will incorporate inputs from the participants to formulate robust implementation strategy for privatisation, asset monetisation and disinvestment programme.

Other than the proposed mega LIC IPO, the government has a large pipeline of strategic disinvestment such as fuel retailer-cum-refiner BPCL, IDBI Bank and Container Corporation of India, among others.