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Informist, Monday, Apr. 28, 2025

 

By Priyasmita Dutta and Sagar Sen

 

NEW DELHI – The government is looking to monetise INR 20 billion of non-core assets, primarily land holdings, of public sector enterprises in 2025-26 (Apr-Mar), a senior finance ministry official said. "We are working with a small target so that we can focus well on the land assets in the pipeline for sale and get good value out of it," the official told Informist on the condition of anonymity.

 

Debt-ridden Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd. and Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd. are at the top of the list of public sector undertakings whose land assets will likely be monetised this fiscal. The list also includes other candidates such as ITI Ltd., earlier known as Indian Telephone Industries Ltd., HIL (India) Ltd, formerly Hindustan Insecticides Ltd., and AI Assets Holding Ltd., formerly known as Air India Assets Holding Ltd. The government also wants to sell non-core assets of Shipping Corp. of India, though the process is at a nascent stage and it will take considerable time before any deal goes through, the official mentioned above said. The asset sale will be done under the aegis of National Land Monetization Corp., a special purpose vehicle set up in 2022 to monetise surplus land and assets owned by public sector enterprises.

 

According to the aforementioned official, the government will in May invite bids for two residential properties in Kolkata owned by BSNL. Considering the two properties may likely be sold to retail buyers, the sale should go through quickly, the official added.

 

Meanwhile, bids have already been invited from empanelled international property consultants to evaluate five land parcels owned by BSNL in prime locations across major cities – Kozhikode and Ernakulam in Kerala, Nandi Nagar in Hyderabad, and Bengaluru and Mangaluru in Karnataka. According to the official, while a couple of the above-mentioned properties could be valued in the range of INR 100 million-INR 500 million each, a couple of others could be sold for as much as INR 1 billion each. "BSNL should be able to get around INR 3 billion from the sale of these five properties," the official added.

 

While the government is yet to finalise the international property consultant to evaluate the five BSNL land parcels, a few government departments have already expressed interest in buying them, including the Income Tax Department and state and central Goods and Services Tax offices, the official said, adding that the Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs recently purchased a property in Bengaluru from ITI Ltd.

 

The sales are part of the government's objective of monetising PSU's non-core assets with little or no business activity, with little success seen in the privatisation and disinvestment of entire state-owned entities.

 

The sale of land assets has, so far, seen limited success owing to legal complications and permissions required from state governments or local bodies, the official said, with National Land Monetization Corp. suffering from lack of manpower. For instance, the special purpose vehicle continues to function without a chief executive officer. Vikas Anand, former joint secretary in the Ministry of Panchayati Raj, was named as the chief executive officer of the special purpose vehicle in February, but was repatriated to his parent cadre just a fortnight later.  End

 

Edited by Tanima Banerjee

 

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