On 5th November 2009, CCEA approved a change in the policy on utilization of disinvestment proceeds. In view of the difficult situation caused by the global slowdown of 2008-09 and a severe drought in 2009-10, a one-time exemption was accorded to disinvestment proceeds being deposited into NIF for investment; this exemption was to be operational for period April 2009-March 2012. All disinvestment proceeds obtained during the three-year period were to be used for select Social Sector Schemes allocated for by Planning Commission/Department of Expenditure.
Salient features of NIF
The NIF corpus was thus managed by three Public Sector Fund Managers. The income from the NIF corpus investments was utilized on selected social sector schemes namely:
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The three-year exemption, mentioned above was extended by CCEA on 1st March 2012 by another year, i.e. from April 2012 – March 2013, in view of the persistent difficult condition of the economy. The utilization of disinvestment proceeds were thus continued for funding of Social Sector Schemes till 31st March, 2013.
The Govt. on 17th January, 2013 approved restructuring of the National Investment Fund (NIF) and decided that the disinvestment proceeds with effect from the fiscal year 2013-14 will be credited to the existing ‘Public Account’ under the head NIF and they would remain there until withdrawn/invested for the approved purpose. It was decided that the NIF would be utilized for the following purposes:
Note: In 2017, the Union Govt. had transferred the role of advising the Govt. on how to utilise the proceeds from disinvestment from the Department of Investment and Public Asset Management (DIPAM) to the Department of Economic Affairs.