<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The International Monetary Fund on Monday said the sale of national carrier Air India will constitute an \u201cimportant milestone\u201d in India\u2019s privatisation efforts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Tata group has emerged as the winning bidder for the loss-making Air India, and on October 11, a letter of intent (LoI) was issued to the group. \u201cWe welcome the recent agreement on the sale of Air India, which constitutes an important milestone,\u201d Alfred Schipke, Director of IMF-STI Regional Training Institute and a former IMF India Mission Chief, told PTI in an interview.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Earlier this month, the government accepted an offer by Talace Pvt Ltd, a unit of Tata group, to pay Rs 2,700 crore cash and takeover Rs 15,300 crore of Air India\u2019s debt. After Tatas accept the LoI, the share purchase agreement (SPA) for the sale will be signed. Along with Air India, Tatas will acquire low-cost carrier Air India Express and Air India\u2019s 50 per cent stake in equal joint venture AISATS.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIn general, to maximise the benefits from privatisation, the international experience highlights the importance of medium-term privatisation plans, solid regulatory frameworks, competitive markets and the buy-in of key stakeholders,\u201d Schipke said as the IMF released its annual report on India. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The annual report lists more than 130 key policy actions that have been undertaken by Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led government in the last one year as part of efforts to liberalise and reform the country\u2019s economy. On the fiscal front, Schipke said it was important to highlight two areas where actions taken stand out. First is the swift expansion of support to low-income households with the onset of the pandemic by effectively leveraging existing social support schemes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The in-kind food transfers through PM Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana, which have been extended several times since the pandemic, and later improvement of the portability of benefits through the One Nation One Ration Card system have been critical to help alleviate the significant impact of the pandemic on livelihoods, he noted. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
According to him, the second policy area is the authorities\u2019 new privatisation policy and asset monetisation pipeline that can, if implemented successfully, improve the return from government assets and help finance much-needed public expenditure on infrastructure, health and education.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cOn monetary policy measures, the RBI has provided significant, broad-based, and appropriate monetary easing through interest rate cuts and an accommodative stance,\u201d Schipke said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
These were aided by time and state-contingent forward guidance on policy rates and, more recently, on asset purchases, to better anchor market expectations amid unprecedented uncertainties. Various liquidity measures resulted in a cumulative injection of over six per cent of GDP during February 2020\u2013March 2021 and helped avoid a broad-based liquidity crunch for both financial and non-financial corporates, he added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cAmong financial sector measures, the creation of the National Asset Reconstruction Company Ltd is a welcome development that shows the authorities\u2019 efforts to secure financial stability and to address the problem of distressed bank assets,\u201d the IMF official said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Furthermore, he said the recent recapitalisation of PSBs and the privatisation of two public sector banks and one state-owned insurance company are welcome developments and \u201cwe await further details\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe are hopeful that these initial privatisations will pave the way for further reforms, a substantial reduction in the government\u2019s footprint in the sector, and ultimately a boost to the resilience of the sector,\u201d he noted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe also welcome structural reforms such as in the labour market reform bills, which, among other things, include the easing of administrative bottlenecks and expanding social security benefits for fixed-term and migrant workers, are likely to speed up formalisation of the labour force,\u201d Schipke said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He also said that recent measures to liberalise FDIs and the country\u2019s commitment to meeting the Paris agreement climate mitigation pledges support a greener and more globally integrated India.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The International Monetary Fund on Monday said the sale of national carrier Air India will constitute an \u201cimportant milestone\u201d in India\u2019s privatisation efforts. Tata group has emerged as the winning bidder for the loss-making Air India, and on October 11, a letter of intent (LoI) was issued to the group. \u201cWe welcome the recent agreement […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1833","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nagalandpost.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1833","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nagalandpost.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nagalandpost.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nagalandpost.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nagalandpost.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1833"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nagalandpost.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1833\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nagalandpost.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1833"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nagalandpost.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1833"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nagalandpost.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1833"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}