The government’s decision not to burden the National Highways Authority India (NHAI) with additional borrowings in FY23, by providing a much higher budget support of Rs 1.34 lakh crore is aimed at reining in the entity’s burgeoning debt that stood at Rs 3.38 lakh crore at the end of November 2021, according to official sources. However, this doesn’t mean NHAI would not scale up its borrowings next year.
The idea is to give the entity that borrows on the strength of its balance sheet even as an implied sovereign support serves as an indirect aid, the leeway to mitigate its debt. At the same time, harnessing of non-debt capital through other sources like monetisation of operational highway stretches through the toll-operate-transfer mechanism and the InvIT routes would continue.
