Airports Among $81 Billion Of Infrastructure To Be Sold By Centre: Report

The planned sales are in line with PM Modi's strategic divestment policy, under which the state will retain presence in only a few identified sectors with the rest privatized.

The Centre plans to raise Rs 6 trillion ($81 billion) from selling state-owned infrastructure assets over next four years to help bolster the government's finances and plug its budget deficit, according to people familiar with the matter. The plan will include sale of road and railway assets, airports, power transmission lines and gas pipelines, said the people who asked not to be identified as they aren't authorised to share the details. Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman is scheduled to make the road-map public later Monday. The planned sales are in line with Prime Minister Narendra Modi's strategic divestment policy, under which the state will retain presence in only a few identified sectors with the rest privatized. The government has budgeted as much as Rs 1.75 trillion from such sales in the year through March 2022 to make up for the pandemic-linked drop in tax revenue. While broader divestment proposals this year include an initial public offering by Life Insurance Corp. of India as well as stake sales in companies such as Bharat Petroleum Corp. and Air India Ltd., Ms Sitharaman is expected to announce Monday plans only for monetizing infrastructure assets held by 11 ministries.