Remove barriers to PPP: FICCI-EY study

A FICCI-EY study released at the inaugural session of the India PPP Summit, organised by FICCI in association with the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) India, made recommendations asking for interventions to remove the barriers to purchasing power parity (PPP) and accelerate the implementation of its projects.

The recommendations of the study included strengthening of lending institutions like IDFs etc. and greater participation of insurance and pension funds. As per the study, establishment of Infrastructure PPP Project Review Committee (IPRC) and the Infrastructure PPP Adjudicatory Tribunal (IPAT) would enable them to screen and identify actionable stress in any infrastructure PPP project in a time bound manner.

Also, setting up of 3P India as proposed in the Union Budget for 2014-15 to provide support to mainstreaming PPPs with a sum of INR 500 crore is recommended. It is predicted that the institution would be set up as a Center of Excellence (CoE) for PPPs, facilitating sophisticated models of contracting, developing quick dispute redressal mechanism of PPPs.

Apart from this, other recommendations also included mechanism to keep a check on aggressive bidding, the need for independent regulators, passing and enactment of pending bills, a strong emphasis on performance-based contracts, better preparation of DPR and revisiting the Viability Gap Funding (VGF) Scheme.

The study was released today by Nitin Gadkari, minister for road transport, highways and shipping, Amitabh Kant, Chief Executive Officer, NITI Aayog, Dr. Junaid Kamal Ahmad, India country director, South Asia, The World Bank, and others.