Mr Rajiv Agarwal, Operating Partner, Infrastructure – Essar and Managing Director, Essar Ports Ltd, represented Essar while sharing his thoughts on Covid impact on the infrastructure sector and way forward
The India Infrastructure Forum 2021 on ‘Post Covid Outlook and Needed Next Steps’ was organised on 31st August, 2021. Mr Rajiv Agarwal, Operating Partner, Infrastructure – Essar, and Managing Director – Essar Ports, was one of the panelists that discussed the Covid Impact on the infrastructure sector and what the government needs to do. The mission of the Forum was to provide a collaborative mechanism for key stakeholders such as the policymakers, developers, contractors, regulators, investors and consultants in the infrastructure segment.
Mr Agarwal interacted with Mr K Rajaraman, Additional Secretary, Department of Economic Affairs, Ministry of Finance, along with other well-known panelist, including Mr Sanjoy Mukherjee, Executive Director Projects, Engineers India Ltd, Mr TR Rao, Whole Time Director Infrastructure, PNC Infratech and Mr Palash Srivastava, Deputy CEO, IIFCL Projects Ltd.
The Forum was organised to offer a platform to highlight key government initiatives and investment opportunities, discuss key issues faced by developers and investors, facilitate partnerships and improve understanding among different stakeholders.
Mr Agarwal shared insights on how demand has bounced back in the ports sector despite the pandemic, which has resulted in keeping the Nations growth intact. He added that the Vaccination drive undertaken by the government will have a direct impact on the economic recovery. He spoke about how the Government has taken the lead in the past few years and has appropriately made investments for infrastructure projects. However, he also stressed that there needs to be a strong focus to enable the success of PPP projects.
Public Private Partnerships will not only enhance efficiency but also unlock value for the sector, especially for the National Infrastructure Pipeline. Almost 50% of revenue of PPP Projects goes to the Government through Revenue Share, License Fees, GST and Income Tax etc. Similarly, loss of revenue in PPP Projects is also a national loss. There is a growing shift from PPP to EPC model. However, PPP remains critical for the economy’s targeted growth. Hence the need of the hour is to review the PPP model.
Mr Agarwal also threw light on how to unlock value in the Infrastructure sector in India. There is a dire need to create Sovereign Wealth Fund for low cost funding of Infrastructure. Also, packaging of operating projects/ assets should be under a holding company which can leverage the same to raise funds for new projects and plan for effective divestment/ monetisation.