The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs has approved Asset Monetization of subsidiaries of Power Grid Corporation of India Limited- POWERGRID through Infrastructure Investment Trust. It has given approval to POWERGRID  to undertake monetization of its Tariff Based Competitive Bidding (TBCB) assets, held in existing Special Purpose Vehicle (SPVs), through Infrastructure Investment Trust (InvIT).

The approval would facilitate POWERGRID, to undertake asset monetization of its identified TBCB transmission assets through InvIT, so that the proceeds from the asset monetization could be utilized for fresh investment in the transmission network expansion and other capital schemes of the company. In the first block, POWERGRID would be able to monetize 5 TBCB assets of gross block of  7164 crore rupees. Based on the experience gained, further monetization shall be carried out in future.

The assets proposed for monetization through InvlT are operational assets proposed to be managed by the existing manpower of POWERGRID already deputed for this purpose and therefore no additional employment generation is envisaged with regard to them. However, additional employment opportunities are likely in services incidental to InvlT, such as merchant banking, legal advisory, trusteeship, financial and taxation consultancy, valuation, printing, advertisement and in allied activities.

Asset recycling is a key strategy of the Government  to release  the capital invested in operational assets and the proposed InvIT of POWERGRID would attract both domestic as well as global investors including Sovereign Wealth Funds. Sale of assets to InvIT is a way of accessing long term relatively cheap finance required to fund infrastructure projects in Transmission Sector. The CAPEX Plan of POWERGRID for next two years 2020-21 and 2021-22  is 20 thousand 500 crore rupees. The government has enacted an enabling regulatory and taxation framework for InvITs and the proposed InvIT by POWERGRID would deepen this market.

The InvIT would provide an opportunity to the general public and institutional investors such as Pension Funds, Mutual Funds, to benefit from this investment opportunity and participate in the growth of Indian Infrastructure Sector.