Ahluwalia urges states to encourage PPP

New Delhi, July 22: Planning Commission Deputy Chairman, Montek Singh Ahluwalia, has urged all states to come up with bankable projects to attract private companies in developing the country's infrastructure.

He invited the state governments to utilize the Centre's "India Infrastructure Development Fund" to encourage Public-Private Partnership (PPP).

"Many state governments have questions about what is the Central Government doing in terms of incentivising PPP more. We are incentivising PPP for policy point of view. We are also providing some sources through viability gap funding for certain kinds of areas," Ahluwalia told reporters yesterday.

He added that for each sector, there is a brief statement of policy. "There is also a list of ongoing PPP projects and then there is a list of projects that are coming."

Finance Minister P. Chidambaram had earlier said that the country was banking on private equity inflows and an annual use of five billion dollars from its foreign exchange reserves to meet the investment needs of its creaky infrastructure.

Chidambaram told a conference of senior government officials in the Capital that India would require 475-billion-dollar investment in infrastructure during 2007/12, higher than a previous estimate of 320 billion dollars.

The PPP scheme will be funded up to 20 percent equity each by the Centre and the state-run financial agency India Infrastructure Finance Company (IIFC). The rest 60 percent would be borne by the state governments.

ANI
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