Kerala House passes decision towards CAG report: Factually flawed on KIIFB’s off-budget borrowings

In an unprecedented growth, the Kerala Assembly on Friday handed a decision towards a Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) report, which termed the off-budget borrowings by Kerala Infrastructure Investment Fund Board (KIIFB) as unconstitutional and stated that it encroached upon the powers of the Union authorities.
The decision, moved by Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, was handed regardless of sturdy objections raised by the Opposition, which stated the federal government was attempting to destroy a Constitutional physique. The decision stated the Assembly rejected CAG’s reference about KIIFB in its report.
The CAG report on state funds audit for 2019 was tabled within the meeting on January 19. It made antagonistic remarks towards the off-budget borrowings, together with the masala bond, of the KIIFB, which is the federal government entity for mobilising funds for infrastructure initiatives.

The decision stated the antagonistic references towards KIIFB had been unwarranted, factually flawed, and swiftly included in such a fashion to harm the developmental curiosity of the state. “This meeting sees that the references towards KIIFB had been made with out listening to the state authorities and in violation of the audit rules issued by CAG itself. The emergence of mentions which weren’t within the draft however included within the last report is denial of pure justice.’’
The decision stated the CAG findings that KIIFB’s borrowings are off-budget and never a part of the contingent legal responsibility of the federal government had been flawed. Such findings had been made with out understanding and analysing the fundamental monetary construction of the KIIFB.
As references towards KIIFB within the state monetary audit report-2019 endanger the bigger developmental curiosity of the state, the meeting needed to take up its nervousness with the CAG, it stated.
Congress’s V D Satheeshan, among the many Opposition members who spoke towards the decision, needed the federal government to withdraw it. “The authorities is attempting to destroy a Constitutional physique and the decision needs to be withdrawn to uphold the custom of the Assembly,’’ he stated.