Pre Budget 2022 - The Monetisation Gamble

The government has taken a new route to enable infrastructure creation—asset monetisation. Operating assets worth ₹6 lakh crore across roads, railway stations, trains, stadiums, among others, will be monetised over the next three years. Will it work?

- Rajat Mishra

A MID THE DOOM and gloom of the pandemic in 2021, two instances showed the government a way forward, financially speaking. In April, Power Grid Corporation of India became the first PSU to go public by floating an infrastructure investment trust (InvIT), which included mainly high-voltage transmission lines and substations, raising more than ₹7,700 crore. Then, in November, Nitin Gadkari, Minister of Road Transport and Highways, took to Twitter to announce that the National Highways Authority of India’s (NHAI) first InvIT, which comprised five toll roads spanning over 390 km, has raised ₹5,000 crore. This success spawned a plan to raise another ₹3,000 crore.

These two examples show that if the government wants to monetise assets, there is enough private sector interest in “viable, structured and investable projects”, says Manish Aggarwal, Partner & Head, Infrastructure and Special Situations Group, KPMG India.