Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has said that India is planning to spend $1.4 trillion on its infrastructure in the next five years, as part of its aim to become a $5 trillion economy by 2024. She said the government has constituted an inter-ministerial task force to draw up annual National Infrastructure Pipeline for each of the five years, starting this fiscal i.e. 2019-20 to fiscal year (FY) 2024-25. She said ‘as we envisage becoming a five trillion-dollar economy by 2024-25, our focus on creating world-class infrastructure has become even more resolute. If we spent $1.1 trillion on infrastructure in the last 10 years (2008-17), we now are going to invest about $1.4 trillion in the next five years.’
The minister has said that the government has taken various steps to enhance infrastructure investment by launching innovative financial vehicles like Infrastructure Debt Funds (IDFs), Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs), Infrastructure Investment Trusts (InvITs) and laying down a framework for municipal bonds. She said ‘we are already applying Public-Private Partnership (PPP) models in the country. We have adopted the Asset Recycling model to modernize existing infrastructure, like highways, while providing the government with upfront capital to support new infrastructure.’
Sitharaman further stated that the government is trying to develop brownfield assets as a separate asset class for infrastructure investment. She said such assets, having passed the stages of land acquisition and environmental and forest clearances, are considerably de-risked and hence, institutional investment from a pension, insurance, and sovereign wealth funds are forthcoming in such assets. She noted that another initiative is the National Investment and Infrastructure Fund (NIIF), which is aimed at channeling investments from both domestic and international sources into infrastructure. She added that India's experience with such innovative modes of funding holds an important example in the financing of infrastructure for other developing countries.
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