Centre bets on coal and mineral mining to lead asset monetisation in FY23

FY23 target for Railways slashed 47%, from Rs 57,222 crore projected earlier

After an admirable performance in 2021-22 (FY22), the Centre is sanguine about coal and mineral mining leading its asset monetisation drive in 2022-23 (FY23).

The government has apportioned a target of Rs 33,281 crore from coal and mineral mining for the current fiscal year (FY23) — the highest for any ministry — since policy reforms have enabled greater private sector participation in the sector, said an official.

In FY22, the Ministry of Coal was able to monetise assets worth Rs 40,000 crore, against its monetisation target of Rs 3,394 crore.

While announcing the National Monetisation Pipeline (NMP) in August 2021, the government had said Rs 28,747 crore would be the indicative monetisation value over FY22 through to 2024-25; it realised Rs 40,000 crore in FY22 itself.

Separately, the monetisation of mineral blocks had helped the Centre mop up around Rs 18,700 crore last year.

This was possible because of steps taken to boost domestic coal production, initiatives aimed at improving private sector participation in coal, and amendments to the Mines and Minerals (Regulation and Development) Act.

The Centre is yet again confident that such measures will help in impressive receipts through monetisation for the second straight year, observed the official. After mining, the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways is targeting the second-highest monetisation receipts of Rs 32,855 crore, followed by the Ministry of Railways targeting receipts of Rs 30,000 crore.

While the target for roads has been reinstated as announced last year, the target for Railways has been slashed 47 per cent, from Rs 57,222 crore estimated earlier. The Railways was able to amass only around Rs 900 crore, against a target of Rs 17,810 crore for FY22 since some projects, such as station redevelopment and hill trains moving at a sluggish pace, have fallen flat, and the private sector has evinced no interest as yet to run trains.

In a review undertaken by the Cabinet secretary, sectoral targets have been allotted to all central ministries for FY23. Ministries that were laggards in FY22 and could not meet their monetisation target, have seen their past-year targets being rolled over to this year. The target for FY23 has been set after considering the rolling over of FY22 targets. This has been finalised after a comprehensive review undertaken with administrative ministries and the NITI Aayog,” said the official quoted earlier.

Targets for other ministries, such as telecommunications, have been kept at Rs 20,180 crore as envisaged while announcing the NMP. Power assets worth Rs 15,308 crore will be monetised in FY23 as estimated last year. In FY22, the Ministry of Power had monetised assets worth Rs 9,500 crore.

Monetisation through oil and gas assets, and warehousing assets is projected to be Rs 9,176 crore, and Rs 8,670 crore, respectively, as estimated earlier. Aviation assets worth Rs 7,229 crore will be monetised this year since the Centre has reinstated the target projected earlier, even when the previous year’s Rs 5,720-crore target was missed.

The monetisation target for the Ministry of Ports, Shipping and Waterways has also been reinstated at Rs 3,553 crore. For the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports, it has been kept the same at Rs 2,100 crore, even as last year’s target of Rs 1,650 crore was not met.