Two state-owned hotels to be leased out soon: DIPAM Secy

Two state-owned ITDC hotels will soon go for auction as part of government's plans to privatise these properties, a senior government official said today.
Department of Investment and Public Asset Management (DIPAM) Secretary Neeraj Kumar Gupta said the Centre had last year exited from five India Tourism Development Corporation (ITDC) hotel properties, which were in collaboration with various state governments.
"We have taken the money and settled them with the states. Now states are in the process of coming out with the lease. Two joint leases, very promising, will come in the market very soon," Gupta said at the Ficci post-Budget meet.

He said 14 joint ventures or units of ITDC which they have to settle with either private management or with states.
Elaborating on his plans to raise Rs 80,000 crore in 2018-19 fiscal through disinvestment, Gupta said his department is working on a new debt Exchange Traded Fund (ETF).
The debt ETF would enable CPSEs, which are raising almost Rs 3 lakh crore from market through bond route individually, can be leveraged.

"The efficiency of bonds can be further improved. If the cost of borrowing goes down, the capacity to expand goes up," he said.
The two equity ETFs -- CPSE ETF and Bharat 22 -- is outperforming Sensex and Nifty in yields, Gupta said.

Speaking on the occasion, Financial Services Secretary Rajiv Kumar said Udyamimitra portal is very helpful for the MSME sector as it clears the loan proposal in a time-bound manner.
MSME will be informed about their loan proposal within a maximum time-limit of 15 days, he said.
Besides, enterprises can track their proposal and get the status online, he said.
"In respect of Udyamimitra, I would say its virtual platform now and 3,300 cases have been sanctioned amounting to Rs 750 crore in the last 4-5 months," Kumar said.