And for a Friday after the very welcome and timely NMP announcement, some thoughts.…. some hopes…..
The NMP (National Monetisation Plan) announced by the GOI is a very welcome initiative. It must be understood in the right perspective and fully supported. Monetising Brownfield, stable, de-risked Govt Infrastructure Assets without loosing sovereign ownership. Getting the best value thru efficient and productive use of the capacities, in partnership with the most efficient private sector partners in each of the sectors is an excellent idea whose time has come. Revenue rights will be transferred by well defined International standard Contractual framework based on principles of balanced risk sharing and protection of interests of all stake holders. National Highways are already on a PPP model. Assets of Railways, Power transmission, Natural Gas Pipelines, Warehouses, Airports, Sports Stadiums – the opportunities are immense. Ofcourse the challenge is in the implementation of the Policies. We must learn from our past mistakes and not allow our Babudom and some of the corrupt Politicians to complicate and abort the excellent ideas.
The Pandemic has caused unprecedented damage to the Indian Economy. Our fiscal deficit last year was 9.3% of GDP and with all the improvement measures can at best be 6.8% in FY 21 -22 against the original target of 3.5%. Raising resources are therefore a MUST. We need to jump start the Economy by investments to create jobs and livelihood opportunities and support our very poor and dispossessed by direct money transfer. All this requires more money in the Kitty. Some of our obsolete communist oriented fossilised political leaders talk of taxing the rich. They say, increase Income tax, bring back wealth tax, estate tax etc. etc. They are oblivious to reality on the ground. Apart from rich politicians and super rich farmers (who anyway pay no taxes), there are no other rich Indians left in India. Last data showed only 8600 Indians pay taxes of more than 5 crores, cos, the Rich Indians are welcome to take citizenship in any other part of the Developed world. With just 2.5 crores, Indians can get Golden Visa in Greece. Every Developed country including USA offers immediate citizenship to rich Indians. The super rich may be operating in India but their bases are all abroad. So we need to find innovative ways to raise resources and revive our economy. Monetisation of Assets is the best way.
Slowly but surely, the world is waking up to the long term potential of India and threat of Imperialistic China. Last month alone, first time in recent history, India got 7.9 bn $ of Start-up Funding whilst China got only 4.8 bn $. Signs of times to come. Let’s all support Monetisation, the knowledgeable way, the transparent way, the SEEGOS way.