Bengaluru, Sep 1 (FN Agency) Congress leader Sachin Pilot Wednesday prefered Private Equity and International funds over National Monetisation announced by the central government. “What stops the Private Equity Funds and International Funds to make a Special Purpose Vehicle and invest through Indian entities and pick up stake in very important assets. This question is not about gross mismanagement of the economy, it is about what is India’s priority. The government should address this,” he told reporters here. A private equity fund is a collective investment scheme used for making investments in various equity securities.
These funds are typically limited partnerships with a fixed term of 10 years. An international fund is a mutual fund that can invest in companies located anywhere in the world outside of its investors’ country of residence. Spelling out the drawback of monetisation, Pilot said monetisation of strategic assets will create monopolies or duopolies, because there will be very few players in the market to compete, he said. “I have been the minister before. There is Competition Commission of India which secures the interests of all stakeholders, so that there is fair competition in the market. But when we only have a handful of players, there will be monopolies and duopolies, which will reduce competition in the market,” he said. The end result of monetising sectors like power, railways and others, will overly burden people with heavy taxes, Pilot said. The central government plans to monetise assets to collect about Rs 6 trillion to partly fund its ambitious infrastructure projects over four years ending 2024-25. The government expects to realise about Rs 88,000 crore through asset monetisation in the current financial year. Speaking further, Pilot feared that asset monetisation will increase unemployment as the investors would certainly lay off people employed in these assets.
“Today the people, who will finance this purchase, will take money from public sector banks and buy these public assets. After buying them, they will certainly lay off a huge number of people to be more profitable. That means more jobs will be lost,” he said. Congress party, on the other hand, had promised in its general election manifesto to monetise loss-making non-strategic assets, not monetising strategic assets as the present government is doing, Pilot said. Taking a swipe at the central government, Pilot said it has failed in all accounts. “We have seen the highest number of unemployment ever in Indian history, rise in poverty and gross mismanagement during Covid crisis. We have seen every sector of the economy fall apart,” he said. On the Rs 20 lakh crore stimulus package announced by the government, Pilot said it has not helped the economy grow, instead it is sinking because the poor are not able to purchase and consume, Pilot said. “I wish to ask the Government of India – who benefited from the Rs 20 lakh crore stimulus package? The Government of India’s stimulus package is imaginary. The result of which is a sinking economy, job losses, rise in poverty etc. It has failed on all counts,” he said.