Expect NIIF to Fund Infrastructure Investments Worth $12-13 Billion, Says Subhash Chandra Garg

The Indian government expects investments worth $12-13 billion in infrastructure projects through the National Investment and Infrastructure Fund, Economic Affairs Secretary Subhash Chandra Garg said in New Delhi today.

NIIF has infused $3 billion in such projects so far and the government is looking to raise an equal or higher amount from other participants, sovereign wealth funds, pension funds, and other private sector participants to raise a corpus of about $7-8 billion, Garg said. He was speaking at an event organised jointly by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations and Confederation of Indian Industry.

The infrastructure investment fund was announced in the 2015-16 Budget and is proposed to have a corpus of Rs 40,000 crore or $6 billion. Government of India will hold 49 percent in the proposed fund.

NIIF is created as a trust, and registered as a Category-II Alternative Investment Fund under the Securities and Exchange Board of India regulations, according to its website.

Boosting Foreign Investments In Infrastructure

The government is working on policy measures to attract more foreign investments in infrastructure and is looking for “more such innovative instruments” like the NIIF, Garg said.

“Big money lies with a lot of pension funds. So how do we get them interested to invest? Therefore we are looking at a number of ways, policy on permitting FPIs (foreign portfolio investments), policy on AIF (alternate investment fund)...those are the area where we are trying to work,” he said.