Govt forms ten-member panel to revisit PPP model

NEW DELHI, May 26: Government today constituted a 10-member panel under former finance secretary Vijay Kelkar to revisit and revitalise the public private partnership (PPP) mode of infrastructure development. Finance Minister Arun Jaitley in his budget speech for 2015-16 had made an announcement regarding the same. Jaitley had said that PPP infrastructure development model has to be revisited and revitalised, in which the major issue involved is re-balancing of risk. In pursuance of the announcement, a Committee comprising of 10 members including its chairman Kelkar, who is presently the Chairman of Institute of Public Finance & Policy, has been constituted, a Finance Ministry release said today. Among the members of the committee are C S Rajan, Chief Secretary, Rajasthan Government; S B Nayar, CMD, India Infrastructure Finance Company Limited (IIFCL); Shekhar Shah, Director General, National Council of Applied Economic Research (NCAER); Pradeep Kumar, MD, Corporate Banking Group (CBG), State Bank of India (SBI); Vikram Limaye, MD, Infrastructure Development Finance Company (IDFC); P S Behuria, former IRS and Sudipto Sarkar, Barrister-at-law, Kolkata. Also it contains a representative, not below the rank of joint secretary, from the Road Ministry as its member, while Sharmila Chavaly, Joint Secretary, Department of Economic Affairs, Finance Ministry is the Member Secretary. The terms of reference of the Committee include measures to improve capacity building in government for effective implementation of PPP projects, review of experience of PPP policy, analysis of risks involved in such projects in different sectors and existing framework of sharing of such risks between project developer and government. Among others, it will deliberate upon design modifications to contractual arrangements of PPP, international best practices as well as institutional context. The Committee may consult various stake holders in private sector, government sector, legal experts, banking/financial institutions and academia while firming up recommendations. IDFC will provide secretarial assistance to the Committee. The Committee shall submit its report within a period of three months, it added.