The Central government is giving finishing touches to a policy for creating a land bank of surplus land available with public sector units (PSU) which can be auctioned.

“The committee for deciding the guidelines for identification and disposal of surplus land with PSUs has finalised its recommendations. The report should be ready in a fortnight or so,” said Economic Affairs Secretary Shaktikanta Das.

He said the policy would cover all state-run firms. The Ministry of Urban Development has set up a portal, which would act as a repository of all information on government and PSU lands. “All PSUs will give information on the land available with them,” Das told BusinessLine .

The committee’s recommendations provide criteria for deciding the surplus land and how it should be disposed of. “It will spell out whether the land should be given directly to government ministries or agencies. If these don’t require the land, then it will be disposed of through auctioning,” he said.

The move follows an announcement by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley in the Budget to encourage PSUs to divest their individual assets like land and manufacturing units. “This will release their asset value for making investment in new projects,” he had announced as part of the government’s new policy to manage its investments in PSUs.

The government has not fixed any target for revenue from sale of the surplus land with PSUs in the Budget, Das said.

Earlier, a committee led by former Finance Secretary Vijay Kelkar had, in 2012, suggested that the government monetise its land resources, some of which is prime land held by PSUs and port trusts.

For 2016-17, the Centre has set itself a disinvestment target of ₹56,500 crore, of which ₹36,000 crore will be from minority stake sales in PSUs.

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