Business Standard

Why the govt shouldn't just privatise factories but infrastructure too

India should consider a reverse Build Operate Transfer (BOT) model wherein the government finances a project on the EPC basis, and then when it's ready, it auctions it off to the private sector

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T C A Srinivasa-Raghavan
Last week I wrote about how risk capital for building capital-intensive infrastructure wasn't a good idea because it can't absorb losses and that taxpayers should finance infrastructure.

I had also said that we should perhaps consider a reverse Build Operate Transfer (BOT) model wherein the government finances a project on the EPC basis, and then when it's ready, it auctions it off to private sector operators because they would operate it more efficiently.

That's to say, it's not just factories that the government should privatise but infrastructure as well. The absence of risk capital will ensure no ILFS or Adani-type
Disclaimer: These are personal views of the writer. They do not necessarily reflect the opinion of www.business-standard.com or the Business Standard newspaper

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