Mumbai: Congress leader, P Chidambaram, criticized Central Government and Finance Minister, Nirmala Sitharaman, over the country’s asset monetization pipeline scheme, at a Press conference today. He accused the scheme to be ‘scandalous’ and ‘daylight robbery’, and asked the Government to reveal its main objectives.
‘She’ll privatize it and get only Rs 1.5 lakh crore. Assume the current revenue is Rs 1.3 lakh crore, she’s only getting an additional Rs 20,000 crore. For the sake of Rs 20,000 crore, you’ll sell all that has been built over 70 years? This is scandalous. This is daylight robbery’, Chidambaram criticized finance minister while addressing the press.
Mr. Chidambaram asked the Central government if provisions will be included in the invitation to bid, to ensure the monetization process, so that it doesn’t create monopolies or duopolies in the sector.
The former Finance Minister also added: ‘Assets are giving current revenue. Finance Minister says, I’ll get Rs 1.5 lakh crore. But she should also say what’s the current revenue. Suppose, for the sake of argument, current revenue is Rs 1.6 lakh crore. All that has been built over the last 70 years is being pawned off into the hands of a select few. People must be aware of this danger and protest against it,’ Chidambaram added.
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman had launched the National Monetization Pipeline scheme last month, that includes the Centre’s four-year plan to monetize its brownfield infrastructure assets. The government has planned pipeline of assets worth Rs 6 lakh crore that can be monetized which includes a range of assets put on the block for private sector participation, over a four-year period, from Financial Year 2022 to Financial Year 2023
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