Kelkar panel submits report on revitalising PPP model

The Kelkar Committee, set up to review the government's public-private partnership policy, so as to revitalise the PPP model of infrastructure development, has submitted its report to finance minister Arun Jaitley on Thursday.

The committee has reviewed the operational requirements of PPP policy, including the variations in contents of contracts and difficulties experienced with particular variations and conditions.

The committee was tasked with analysing risks involved in PPP projects in different sectors and existing framework and suggest ways of sharing of such risks between the project developer and the government, thereby evolving optimal risk sharing mechanism.

The committee is reported to have proposed design modifications to the contractual arrangements of the PPP, while also taking into consideration international best practices and India's own institutional context.

Besides it has suggested measures to improve capacity building in government for effective implementation of the PPP projects.

The committee had held extensive consultations with various stake holders across the PPP spectrum, invited suggestions and views of experts, reviewed projects and sectors and researched best practices in India and abroad while firming up its recommendations.

The committee presented its report to the finance minister on Thursday. The government will examine the report and take appropriate action.

Finance minister had, in the union budget 2015-16, announced that the PPP mode of infrastructure development has to be revisited, and revitalised. 

Besides Kelkar, who is chairman of the National Institute of Public Finance and Policy, New Delhi, the committee has C S Rajan, Rajasthan chief secretary C S Rajan, IIFL-New Delhi CMD S B Nayar, NCAER director general Shekar Shah and State Bank of India MD and CBG Pradeep Kumar as members.

Other members of the committee include a representative of the ministry of road transport and highways – not below the rank of a joint secretary, IDFC MD Vikram Limaye, Kolkata-based barrister-at-law Sudipto Sarkar, retired IRS official PS Behuria as members and joint secretary at the Department of Economic Affairs in the ministry of finance Sharmila Chavaly as member- secretary.