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Need to increase capital outlay in road sector by at least 15%: ICRA

14 Jan 2021 Evaluate

Rating agency ICRA has said there is a need to increase capital outlay in the road sector by at least 15 per cent besides expediting asset monetisation programme. It also said that hybrid annuity mode of highways building presents huge refinancing opportunities and 70 such projects involving Rs 35,800 crore of debt are expected to become operational in the next two years. It added that FY2022 remains a crucial year for two reasons: a) Importance of government spending to revive economy and b) Significant catch up to do in the ongoing Bharatmala and allied programmes. As a result, the capital outlay is required to be increased by at least 15 per cent.

Shubham Jain, Senior Vice President, Corporate Ratings, ICRA, said increase in capital outlay needs to be supported by increase in budgetary allocation to the sector at least by 20 per cent to around Rs 0.98 lakh crore to make up for shortfall in the last three years and slow progress on asset monetisation. He said ‘Investors also expect funding road map for the ambitious NIP (National Infrastructure Pipeline). Given the limited fiscal headroom, the government could consider relaxation of fiscal deficit targets to meet the huge funding requirements for productive asset creation, failing which both the Bharatmala and the NIP could get jeopardized’.

The NIP involves outlay of around Rs 20.3 lakh crore in road sector over next five years. However, the budgetary allocations in the past have not kept pace with these plans. Consequently, the dependence on debt funding remained elevated. The total debt for the NHAI has increased by more than three times to Rs 2.49 lakh crore as on March 31, 2020 from Rs 75,385 crore as on March 31, 2017. The borrowings are expected to surpass Rs 3.5 lakh crore by FY2023 to fund the Bharatmala Pariyojana programme (subset of NIP). Liquidity boosting measures for highways sector have helped in reducing the cash conversion cycle, while also getting the performance guarantees and associated margin monies released for the executed portion of the projects.

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