Bengaluru : Noted Economist Karan Bhasin Friday said none of the assets in the NMP are up for sale, instead it is going to be leased out to private partners through an open and transparent bidding process.
“The Narendra Modi government is not selling assets under the National Monetisation Pipeline. Actually, the government is going to lease out these assets to private companies. Leasing will be done through an open and transparent bidding process,” Bhasin told UNI in an exclusive interview over digital platform from New York.
The private company will operate and maintain the assets, but the ownership will remain with the government, he said. “I do not know why the opposition is making a hue and cry over NMP. I have been searching for an issue in this, but I could not find one,” he added.
Moreover, most of the national assets are liabilities because instead of filling the coffers of the government’s exchequer, they are over-burdening the honest taxpayers for maintaining them, Bhasin said.
“An asset is an asset, if it is getting you revenues. If you are taxing people to maintain the asset, it is a liability,” he explained.
For a government to upgrade a country’s infrastructure to world class levels without over-burdening the taxpayers, it needs financial resources, Bhasin said.
“So monetisation helps the government to upgrade infrastructure by handing over the management of the assets to private companies who are skilled and competent,” he said.
For example, the total length of highways has gone up one-and-a-half times the length created over seven decades and total investment in the urban sector in the last seven years is over seven times the investment made in the 10 years between 2004-14, he said.
On making a political issue over NMP by the Congress, Bhasin recalled the steps taken by the UPA government to monetise public assets.
Privatisation of Delhi and Mumbai airports happened under the UPA government, he said. It also tried to privatise the railways, which the Congress considers as a strategic asset, Bhasin said.
Not only the UPA government, the Congress-ruled state governments have monetised public assets, he said.
In February 2020, the Mumbai-Pune Expressway was monetised for Rs 8,262 crore by Maharashtra government, but the Congress did not stop Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray from doing it, Bhasin said.
He also rubbished opposition’s bogey on the matter of jobs. He said jobs grow when an asset is efficiently managed.
“Monetisation helps the government to get revenues by granting bids. This inturn helps the government to reinvest in other infrastructure creation. This results in creation of a new set of jobs,” he said.
“HDFC and ICICI banks were earlier controlled by the government. Now it has been privatised. Have jobs been reduced?” he asked.
Bhasin also rubbished the fears that the taxpayers may have to pay exorbitant fees for the services rendered by private companies managing national assets.
“In India, the per price user charges will not be high because India’s population is dense,” he said.
“First of all, the opposition is telling lies that the government is selling the assets and creating fear among people over exhorbitant payments towards services rendered by companies managing national assets,” he added
