Despite the heavy lifting by the coal and mining sectors, the Indian Railways alone may fall short of its annual target by ₹28,000 crore, according to an internal finance ministry review.
“The asset monetisation may fall short by about ₹55,000 crore… The ministry of railways, department of telecom and ministry of petroleum, oil and gas has indicated it may miss the target by wide margins,” a senior official privy to an internal review by the Department of Public Enterprises last week told ET.
The Centre has raised ₹29,000 crore from asset monetisation so far in 2022-23, of which mines and coal ministries account for ₹17,000 crore.
The official said the road transport and highways ministry will be closer to its target of ₹32,855 crore, whereas the ministries of coal, mines and shipping and ports will exceed their target. The railways ministry was given a target of ₹57,222 crore, which included last year’s backlog of ₹17,000 crore since it could raise only ₹800 crore in 2021-22. During a review meeting in November 2022, it said it would be able to raise only ₹30,000 crore in this fiscal.
In the meeting, the target was scaled down to ₹1.24 lakh crore, down by ₹34,000 crore, but in the February review even this was found to be difficult to achieve, falling short by ₹21,000 crore.
The coal and mining ministries were asked to do more after the November review and their targets were revised upwards to ₹37,500 crore from earlier ₹6,060 crore, setting the total monetisation target at ₹1.62 lakh crore.
However, the official said, in the latest internal review, the railways ministry indicated that it had achieved monetisation of assets worth ₹1,830 crore till February 15.