DPE creating surplus land databank of PSUs -Governance Now

DPE creating surplus land databank of PSUs

Finance minister Arun Jaitley, in this year’s annual budget, had announced that the government has to leverage the assets of central PSUs for generating resources for investment into new projects

GN Bureau | September 6, 2016

#PSU #land databank #Arun Jaitley #department of public enterprises #HMT Chinar Watches

The department of public enterprises (DPE) is creating a databank of surplus land holdings of central public sector units (PSUs) across the country for auction.

The ministry of urban development is setting up a website which will have information on land owned by the PSUs and the government. The land will be offered to the private industry and for government projects, according to a news report in VCCircle.

This comes in the backdrop of the cabinet committee on economic affairs’ decision to close HMT Chinar Watches Ltd, HMT Watches Ltd, HMT Bearings Ltd and Tungabhadra Steel Products Ltd, and transfer or sell their land to central and government ministries, departments and public sector banks.

Also the development is seen in the wake of the announcement by finance minister Arun Jaitley in the annual budget this year. Jaitley had announced, “We have to leverage the assets of CPSEs (central public sector enterprises) for generation of resources for investment in new projects. We will encourage CPSEs to divest individual assets such as land, manufacturing units, among others, to release their asset value for making investment in new projects.”

The NDA government has put a premium on infrastructure development. The total outlay for infrastructure announced in the budget for 2016-17 is Rs 2.21 trillion compared with Rs 1.80 trillion in revised estimates for 2015-16.

Land belonging to the defence forces will not be part of this exercise. Also, DPE will identify projects for which land would be used and the PSU concerned would be informed about the land usage. This will allow the PSUs to discourage any competition.

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