News Analysis India

Tag: National Monetisation Pipeline

  • “Loot” exists in Congress DNA: Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman

    Express News Service

    RAIPUR: Union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Tuesday, October 5, 2021, slammed the Congress party for criticising the Centre’s asset monetisation pipeline scheme, saying “loot” existed in the DNA of the party.

    “The medium of loot never goes out of the mind of the Congress, just as it was rampant during their rule—whether it was spectrum, mines, water and what not”, Sitharaman stated during her visit to Chhattisgarh capital.

    This year in August, the finance minister unveiled a National Monetisation Pipeline (NMP) that included unlocking value by involving private companies across infrastructure sectors — from passenger trains and railway stations to airports, roads and stadiums.

    Taking a jibe at the political crisis over the mid-term change of leadership in the state, Sitharaman said that despite blessings from the people to serve them, the Congress leader focuses on just staying in power.

    “The Congress cannot handle the majority it gets as people’s blessing. Ironically their MLAs are visiting Delhi and the CM is saying there is no change in (leadership)”, the union minister said.

    She highlighted various welfare programmes launched since 2014 by the Centre that were intended to rapidly push the development agenda and said the earmarked funds have always been given to all states including Chhattisgarh to carry out these schemes.

    “How could the state (Chhattisgarh) claim there is no grant from the Centre for executing the welfare programmes of the Modi government when we ensured timely disbursement of funds”, she asserted.

    With fuel prices rising to an all-time high on Tuesday, Sitharaman claimed that the prices of petroleum products in the country depend on the international oil rates. “India had to import 99 per cent of its petrol and diesel requirements. Both the Centre and states together need to handle the issue of their rising cost”, the BJP leader said, while admitting that the rising fuel prices have increased the financial burden on the common man. 

    It was Nirmala Sitharaman’s first ever visit to Chhattisgarh. “I am here as a BJP worker to join the party’s event connected with the Seva aur Samarpan Abhiyaan (from September 17 to continue till October 7)”, she said.

  • NMP, note ban Centre’s ‘twin babies’ to loot people: Congress leader Ajay Maken

    By PTI

    RAIPUR: Senior Congress leader Ajay Maken on Friday said the Centre’s recently announced National Monetisation Pipeline and the 2016 demonetisation move were “twin babies” aimed at “looting” the people of the country.

    The NMP, announced by Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on August 23, aims to unlock monetary value in brownfield assets across sectors ranging from roads to railways over a four-year period till fiscal 2025.

    Addressing a press conference in Rajiv Bhavan, the headquarters of the Chhattisgarh Congress, Maken said, “In the name of development, the Modi government gave birth to twin babies, one was demonetisation and the other one is monetisation. Both are of the same nature.”

    “While demonetisation (note ban) looted poor and small businessmen, the heritage of the country is now being looted through monetisation. Both were aimed at benefiting a few capitalists. The most shocking and suspicious part is that this (NMP) was decided secretly and announced suddenly, which raises doubts over the intention of the government.” he added.

    Maken alleged the main objective of NMP was to create a monopoly of a few “selected industrialist friends”, adding that sectors like railways, roads, airlines were of strategic importance which “facilitate movement of the defence forces in times of war”.

    Without naming the BJP, the former Union minister asked if privatising sectors with strategic importance and selling items related to national security to foreign forces directly or indirectly was “nationalism”.

    The AICC general secretary also said the Centre was lying by claiming the ownership of the assets would remain with the government under NMP.

    The Congress-led UPA government had decided that assets with strategic importance would never be privatised nor would they be allowed to pass into the hands of foreign powers in any way, Maken said.

    The Congress leader said various state governments had given land on concessional rates to PSUs.

    “Since land is a state subject, the Centre should have taken state governments into confidence before announcing the NMP. Their (Centre) intention does not seem right,” he added.

    Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel was also present at the press conference.

  • Government selling properties made with public money at throwaway prices: Rajeev Shukla

    By PTI

    JAIPUR: Senior Congress leader Rajeev Shukla on Friday criticised the Centre’s asset monetisation plan and accused it of selling properties made with public money at throwaway prices.

    Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman recently unveiled an ambitious Rs 6 lakh crore National Monetisation Pipeline (NMP) scheme that included unlocking value by involving private companies across infrastructure sectors ranging from passenger trains and railway stations to airports, roads and stadiums.

    Speaking with reporters at the airport here, Shukla said, “In the last 70 years, all the properties that previous governments had created with public money are being sold at throwaway prices. How can this BJP government, the Modi government sell them when they have no right to sell them”.

    “There are many institutions and public undertakings whose work can be done only by the governments because if they go into private hands then the public will be in trouble,” he added.

    The Congress has been attacking the government over the national monetisation scheme and alleged that the Centre’s plan to sell “family silver” proves the “gross incompetence” of the Modi Cabinet in effectively managing the Indian economy.

  • Congress never monetised core, strategic assets: Chidambaram on NMP

    By PTI

    MUMBAI: Former Union finance minister P Chidambaram on Friday slammed the Centre’s National Monetisation Pipeline (NMP), saying his Congress party monetised non-core, loss-making assets when in power, in stark contrast to what the Narendra Modi-led government proposes to do.

    Addressing a press conference here, Chidambaram said the Congress never sold off strategic assets.

    “We always ensured that there is no monopoly in monetisation as we chose assets based on criteria,” he said.

    Chidambaram asked the government if provisions will be included in the invitation to bid (ITB) to ensure the monetisation process doesn’t create monopolies or duopolies in the sector.

    “What provisions will be included to prevent monopolies emerging in ports, airports, telecom and power sectors,” he asked.

    “What the Modi government plans is a day-light robbery of assets which took years to build,” he said.

    Issuing a list of 20 questions to the Modi government, Chidambaram demanded that the Centre reveal the current revenue from the assets it plans to sell.

    “Konkan Railway and Delhi Mumbai freight corridor will also be sold,” he said, adding the announcement was made without discussions and consultations and to avoid parliamentary debate.

    Chidambaram asked the government to reveal the value of assets that will come back to the government after a period.

    “What are the objectives of the National Monetisation Pipeline? Is the sole objective raising revenue over a four-year period,” he asked.

    “The finance minister must be surely owning a house somewhere in India. She should give it to me on lease for 99 years and she can hang on with the paper that calls her as the owner of the house. What will I give back to her after 99 years? Will I maintain, repair and upgrade it if I am not the owner,” he said, referring to the government’s stand that it will continue to be the owner of the assets.

    “What will be the interest of the party in maintaining the assets if it is not the owner,” he asked.

    Chidambaram said in listing the assets to be monetised, the government has acknowledged the work done in the last 70 years.

    “A big lie has been exposed by its own list,” he added.

    He said people should raise their voices against the danger of selling assets.

    Asked if Congress plans to challenge the government legally, he said so far only a policy announcement has been made.

    “After the invitation to bid (ITB) process starts, someone will surely challenge it. Congress prefers the people’s court and we will raise awareness about the dangers,” he said.

    Chidambaram asked if the government will stipulate in the contract that the amount of depreciation should be put in a depreciation reserve account used only to maintain, upgrade or add to the assets so that at the end of the lease period, a valuable asset is returned to the government.

    He also asked if there will be asset stripping by the lessee.

  • ‘BJP selling away national assets like an unworthy son’: Digvijay Singh lashes out at Modi, Shah

    Express News Service

    PATNA: Former Madhya Pradesh chief minister and Rajya Sabha MP Digvijay Singh accused the BJP of selling all the national assets which were raised and created by the Congress government in the last 70 years. 

    Criticising the National Monetisation Pipeline launched by Union finance minister, Singh who reached Patna on Thursday night, drew the comparisons between Congress and BJP as worthy and unworthy sons. “Congress government raised and created the national assets during its governance like a worthy son. These assets are now being sold off by the BJP like an unworthy offspring would under the guise of the National Monetisation Pipeline. All national assets, including railway stations railway line, airports, road and others, are being sold by this ‘unworthy son’ (BJP),” Singh said.

    “When the country is passing through a difficult economic crisis how can I say Narendra Modi is a good prime minister? The BJP-led NDA governemnt is not for the people but for corporate houses.”

    He said the BJP often claims that nothing has happened in the country in the last 70 years, the majority period of which was ruled by the Congress. “If nothing has happened in the last 70 years, what the central government is selling? That is the difference between worthy and unworthy sons, between the Congress and the BJP,” Singh said.

    Stepping up his political attack at the Centre, Singh said that Both PM Narendra Modi and Amit Shah are proving disastrous for the country. He alleged that the hike in the rates of petrol and diesel is creating financial hardships for the common man. 

    Singh also blamed the Modi-Shah duo for constant disruptions in the Parliament. “The Congress party had always wanted to discuss the national issue in both the houses, but the BJP government differed from it. If these issues of inflation, unemployment and others are not discussed in Parliament, then where will it be done? The BJP is ruining the nation”, he alleged

    “No discussion can take place in both the houses without their consent. That is why the Congress has decided that it will send its people to different provinces to speak on inflation, unemployment and national wealth.”

    Lashing out at chief minister Nitish Kumar, Singh that the CM is under pressure from the Centre. “Now the political thoughts of legendary leaders like JP Narayan and Ram Manohar Lohia are being removed from the syllabus by the state government,” he said.

    On being asked about Nitish Kumar being projected as the ‘PM Material’, Singh said: “Had he (Nitish Kumar) been the PM material, he would have not gone in the political shelter of BJP. Kumar knelt before the BJP just to continue to stay in power.”

  • NMP is ill-conceived, meant to hoodwink people: Former Union Law minister Ashwani Kumar

    By PTI

    CHENNAI: Former Union law minister Ashwani Kumar on Thursday claimed the Centre’s National Monetisation Pipeline (NMP), to unlock value in brownfield projects by engaging private sector, is wholly ill-conceived, untenable and intended to hoodwink the people from pressing national issues like price rise, unemployment and others.

    Terming the policy as a “cruel joke,” he said the NMP is “virtually a transfer of taxpayer-funded assets to a handful of business groups.”

    “It will lead to a rising concentration of economic power in crucial sectors of the economy in the hands of a few and will also affect the price stabilisation,” the Congress leader said.

    Speaking to reporters at Satyamurthy Bhavan, the party state headquarters here, Ashwani Kumar alleged the Centre was attempting to part with national assets to the tune of Rs 6 lakh crore by telling the nation that Rs 100 lakh crore would be invested in infrastructure.

    “How is it possible, in any case if any mathematical formula is applied, to fund Rs 100 lakh crore through the collection of Rs 6 lakh crore over a period of four years? This is a cruel joke on the people of the country,” he remarked.

    On the face of it, the NMP appeared to be an attempt to “legitimise a mechanism to favour a select few at the cost of the nation,” he added.

    The NMP, he said, is “untenable and a mala fide attempt to hoodwink the people by distracting them from the real issues confronting India, especially price rise, unemployment, mismanagement, etc.”

    The policy could effectively lead to job insecurity and could defeat the policy of reservation in jobs for SC, ST, OBCs etc., he added.

    The former minister sought to know how the loss of revenue on the return of the assets will be factored in.

    The justification of collecting Rs 6 lakh crore for facilitating Rs 100 lakh crore investment in the infrastructure sector is an obvious absurdity.

    “You can’t expect the private sector to invest without profit… The NMP is a grand clearance sale – a fire sale – of national assets,” he charged.

    Unlike the BJP government, the Congress-led UPA government disinvested only those PSUs which were chronically making losses or had a minimal share in the market and it never agreed to sell strategic assets, Kumar said when his attention was drawn to the UPA’s privatisation policy.

    The funds raised through NMP will be like a drop in the ocean to revive the economy, he opined.

    The government recently unveiled a four-year National Monetisation Pipeline worth an estimated Rs 6 lakh crore aiming to unlock value in brownfield projects by engaging the private sector, transferring to them revenue rights and not ownership in the projects, and using the funds so generated for infrastructure creation across the country.

    Arguing that this will result in loss of public revenues for 30 to 50 years, Kumar said the effective return from the parting of public assets thus needs to factor in this loss of revenue.

    Also, he alleged that no effective consultation with stakeholders took place before the announcement of this “grand clearing sale policy, which is a fraud on power.” 

  • Indian Youth Congress stages protest against National Monetisation Pipeline

    By PTI

    NEW DELHI: The Indian Youth Congress (IYC) held a protest on Thursday against the National Monetisation Pipeline (NMP), and alleged that the Centre is “selling everything to its friends”.

    Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman had on August 23 announced the Rs 6 lakh crore NMP that will look to unlock value in infrastructure assets across sectors ranging from power to road and railways.

    The IYC protest was held near Shastri Bhawan.

    Terming the NMP the “National Mitigation Scheme”, IYC national president Srinivas BV alleged that the government is keeping the interest of the countrymen at bay and “doing good only for itself and its friends”.

    “Those who had vowed that I would not let the country be sold, they are selling everything to their friends one by one under the ‘National Mitigation Scheme’.

    “Road, rail, airport, electricity, gas, petrol, mines, stadium, warehouse, everything is being sold,” Srinivas alleged in the statement.

    The “sell policy” of the central government will prove to be harmful for the country, he alleged.

    IYC national general secretary Bhaiya Pawar, national secretary Mohit Choudhary and Delhi Pradesh Youth Congress president Ranvijay Singh Lochav were among those who took part in the protest.

  • Rahul Gandhi continues criticism against government on assets issue

    By PTI

    NEW DELHI: A day after accusing the government of selling and “gifting” India’s assets to its businessmen “friends” through the national monetisation plan, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday again took a swipe with an “IndiaOnSale” hashtag.

    “First sold out conscience and now…,” he said in a tweet in Hindi, using the hashtag.

    Congress also used the hashtag and accused the government of exploiting India’s assets for the benefit of its “crony friends”.

    “Any government must be focused on fostering and utilising the nation’s natural resources so as to benefit generations of citizens to come. All Modi government is focused on is how to exploit our precious assets for the benefit of a few crony-capitalist friends,” the party said on Twitter.

    It also said that airways, waterways or roadways are national infrastructural assets that boost the entire economy.

    “How justified is it to sell these assets built with crores of rupees worth of taxpayers’ money to a few business persons,” the party asked.

    The Congress further said that the Modi government’s “distract and deflect policy” is falling apart, as it can no longer throw large numbers and fancy slogans around and expect the Indian people to be enthralled.

    The NSUI, the Congress students’ wing, also attacked the government saying, “Congress took 70 years to build. BJP took 7 years to sell” and used the hashtag “IndiaOnSale.”

    Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Wednesday launched a scathing attack on those criticising the Rs 6 lakh crore monetisation plan, wondering if Gandhi even understands what such a move entails.

    She alleged that it is Congress that received “kickbacks” by selling resources such as land and mines.

    She reminded that the governments headed by the Congress raised Rs 8,000 crore by monetising the Mumbai-Pune expressway, and in 2008, it was the UPA government that floated the request for proposal to lease out New Delhi Railway Station.

    Recalling an incident where Gandhi tore off an ordinance he didn’t agree with, Sitharaman questioned why he didn’t tear off the RFP.

    “If he indeed is against monetisation, why was the RFP on the monetisation of NDLS torn to pieces by Rahul Gandhi? And if this is monetisation, did they sell off the New Delhi railway station? Is it owned by jijaji (brother-in-law) now? Does he understand what is monetisation?” Gandhi had on Tuesday attacked the government’s national monetisation plan and said the BJP has claimed that nothing happened in India for 70 years, but now all assets created in all these years with public money were being sold out.

    Gandhi alleged that the government’s privatisation plan was aimed at creating monopolies in key sectors.

    This will kill jobs, eliminate the informal sector, destroy small businesses and lead to “enslaving” of people, he alleged.

  • Assets belong to country; BJP or Modi don’t own them: Mamata on National Monetisation Pipeline

    By PTI

    KOLKATA: West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday slammed the Centre over its National Monetisation Pipeline (NMP) policy, claiming that it is a ploy to sell assets that belong to the country and not to Prime Minister Narendra Modi or the BJP.

    Terming the NMP as a “shocking and unfortunate decision”, the Trinamool Congress supremo alleged that the money raised by selling those assets will be used during elections against opposition parties.

    ALSO READ | BJP calls Congress a ‘non-performing asset’ for criticising Centre’s National Monetisation Pipeline

    “We condemn this shocking and unfortunate decision. These assets belong to the country. It is the property of neither Modi nor the BJP. They (central government) can’t just sell a country’s assets as per their whims and fancies,” Banerjee told reporters at the state secretariat Nabanna. The entire country will stand together and oppose this “anti-people” decision, she said.

    “The BJP should be ashamed. No one has given them the right to sell our nation’s assets,” she said.

    Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Monday announced Rs 6 lakh crore National Monetisation Pipeline (NMP) that will look to unlock value in infrastructure assets across sectors ranging from power to road and railways.

  • Rahul upset that India earning Rs 6 lakh crore: BJP

    Congress is trying to tarnish the Centre #39;s image for working to fill state coffers transparently while keeping them secure from the quot;robbers quot; of the opposition party, Union Minister Smriti Irani said.