KIIFB comes under CAG audit: Isaac

Ministers says all documents sought by officials have been handed over

The government has not taken any decision to remove Kerala Infrastructure and Investment Board Fund (KIIFB) from the ambit of Accountant General audit, Finance Minister T.M. Thomas Isaac has said.

The KIIFB is liable to be audited by CAG under Section 14 (1) C&AG Act. This had been informed to the CAG, following which an audit was also done. All documents that had been sought by the officials had been handed over on time, Isaac informed the Assembly on Tuesday.

The Opposition was trying to create a smokescreen by continuously bringing up allegations in the name of KIIFB, he said.

In the current situation of fiscal crisis, it would have to be examined if projects which did not conventionally fall within the guidelines of the KIIFB could be taken up, he said in reply to questions by M. Ummer, K.N.A. Khader and K.S. Sabarinath.

In the Kannur International Airport Ltd., (KIAL), the State government had only an equity share of 32.99%. Though another 30% shares were owned by various Central and State public sector units, according to the Companies Act 2013, only direct investment by the State or Central government was considered as government share.

Since the government’s direct share was less than 51%, KIAL was not a government firm or a government-controlled firm and hence was not liable to be audited by the CAG. The same was the case with Cochin International Airport Ltd., Dr. Isaac said.

No decision had been taken to slash the State’s annual Plan Fund allocation, he said.

The idea was to cut unnecessary expenses and impose some controls on non-Plan expenditure. Last year, there had been a 20% cut in the annual Plan. Plan Fund expenditure this year had gone up by 41.9% in comparison to 33.8% in the previous year, he said.

The State’s revenue income had gone down drastically in the aftermath of the two floods in consecutive years. The GST income, which was ₹1,443 crore in July 2018 dipped to ₹1,227 crore in August. This year, the GST income in July, which was ₹1,753 crore, dipped to ₹1,637 crore in August. Steps had been taken to settle GST disputes as soon as possible and to speed up revenue recovery processes to make up for this loss in revenue, he added.