Nirmala Sitharaman Forms National Infrastructure Pipeline, Plans Rs 105 Lakh Crore Infra Development by 2025 in Phased Manner

New Delhi, December 31: Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Tuesday said that the Centre has formed National Infrastructure Pipeline (NIP) and has planned Rs 105 lakh crore infrastructure development by FY 2025 in a phased manner. She also stated that the government expect private share in infrastructure sector to increase to 30 percent by 2025.

Addressing a press conference from the Conference Hall of National Media Centre, she said, "The task force in only 4 months held 70 different stakeholders' consultations, with ministries, state governments, developers, NBFCs, bankers and others. We have a Rs 102 lakh crore worth projects compilation. In the next few weeks, another 3 lakh crore worth of projects will be added. We also intend to launch the NIP coordination mechanism consisting of Centre, states." Year-Ender 2019 on Indian Economy: 5 Key Decisions Taken by Nirmala Sitharaman to Fix The Plunging Economy This Year.

Elaborating more on the National Infrastructure Pipeline (NIP), Sitharaman said that Rs 2.5 lakh crore has been identified for port and airport projects, while Rs 3.2 lakh crore for digital infra projects. Also, Rs 16 lakh crore for irrigation, rural, agricultural and food processing has been identified by the Union Finance Ministry.

As per the government estimate, Centre India would need to spend USD 4.5 trillion on infrastructure by 2030 to sustain its growth rate. The Minister said that the endeavour of the NIP is to make this happen in an efficient manner. The government expects private sector to share a 22-25 percent of NIP investments and the rest would be taken care of by the Centre. GST Rates Revised: Hotel Stays Become Cheaper, Caffeinated Drinks Get Costlier; Here's The Complete List of New Tax Rates Announced by Nirmala Sitharaman After GST Council Meet in Goa.

Adding more, she said that the task force on infrastructure developments did 70 meetings in last couple of months. The minister pointed out that Rs 42.7 lakh crore worth projects are under implementation and 63 percent of total infra projects are already firmed up. Combining the power, rail, renewables, urban, irrigation mobility, water, and health, the minister pointed out that the government would form bulk of Rs 105 lakh crore projects.

Stating that both Centre and States together spent Rs 51 lakh crore in the last six years, the minister said that they are commuting another Rs 100 lakh crore. She said, "In the NIP mechanism as of now, the Centre's share will be 39 percent, states share 39 percent and pvt sector share will be 22 percent. Expect private share to increase to 30 percent by 2025."

Apart from all the developments, the Finance minister informed that an annual global investors meet would be organised in the second half of 2020. Sitharaman said, "An annual global investors meet to be organized where Centre and States will get to meet all the investors and to talk to them about infrastructure opportunities." RuPay, UPI Digital Payments Mandatory for Businesses With Over Rs 50 Crore Turnover from February 2020, Defaulters to be Fined Rs 5,000 Per Day.

Earlier, market experts have expected that Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) might plan to set up a pan-India single-window clearance system which would help combine central and state government permissions. It had also mentioned that this system would be set up in four phases, i.e. FY 2021-25.

Previously on Monday, the Union Finance Ministry issued a circular asking all the companies with turnover of Rs 50 crores or more to provide facility of payment through RuPay Debit Card and Unified Payments Interface (UPI) QR code to their customers from February 1, 2020. The circular had been issued as per the set guidelines by Union Ministry of Finance, which had made it mandatory, failing which the businesses would be penalised Rs 5,000 a day. Zero MDR on RuPay and UPI Will Kill Digital Payments Industry of India, Says PCI.

However, the Payments Council of India (PCI) Chairman Vishwas Patel on Monday said the initiative by Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman to make MDR free for digital transactions made using RuPay credit cards or UPI QR codes would kill the industry and make the business model unviable.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Dec 31, 2019 04:10 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).