Is monetising public assets a good idea?

Last week, the Centre released the ‘National Monetisation Pipeline’, a document listing the various public assets that will be leased out to private companies over the next four years. The government believes that monetising underutilised public assets will bring in almost ₹6 lakh crore to the government and help build new infrastructure to boost the economy. The Opposition has accused the government of selling off valuable national assets to “crony capitalists”. Here we discuss this move. Guests: Montek Singh Ahluwalia, former Deputy Chairman of the erstwhile Planning Commission; Ajay Shah, Professor at the National Institute for Public Finance and Policy Host: Prashanth Perumal J. Read the Parley article here. Write to us with comments and feedback at [email protected]