Ruling Left Front govt’s flagship project is white elephant: Congress on KIIFB

Senior Congress leader and political commentator Cherian Philip on Tuesday launched a stinging attack on the Kerala Infrastructure Investment Fund Board (KIIFB), branding it a “white elephant” that has driven the state into what he described as a quagmire of financial distress.

His remarks came on the very day the Pinarayi Vijayan-led Left government marked KIIFB’s silver jubilee with full-page advertisements celebrating it as a transformative force in Kerala’s development story.

Once conceived as a vehicle to fast-track infrastructure creation, KIIFB, according to Philip, has now become a symbol of opacity and overreach. He alleged that its income and expenditure statements remain unaudited and delayed, with neither transparency nor accountability before the state legislature.

“KIIFB, which has pushed Kerala into massive debt, is riddled with irregularities. Its financial dealings through Special Purpose Vehicles and contract arrangements remain hidden behind an iron curtain,” Philip charged, demanding that the government come clean on the actual debt burden and its roadmap for repayment.

Tracing its evolution, Philip recalled how the institution received a major push during the tenure of economist-turned-finance minister Thomas Isaac (2006–11) and was later expanded under Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan after 2016. Yet, despite the government’s claims of implementing development projects worth ₹90,562 crore, the Congress leader argued that KIIFB’s model was fundamentally flawed.

He accused the administration of diverting fuel and motor vehicle tax revenues — meant for the state exchequer — into KIIFB’s coffers, and criticised its decision to raise Masala Bonds on the London Stock Exchange, calling the move a violation of foreign exchange norms.

“KIIFB has borrowed recklessly — from bonds, loans, and financial institutions like NABARD — at interest rates exceeding nine per cent,” Philip said, warning that future governments would bear the crushing weight of repayment.

Calling it “a reckless fiscal adventure,” he lamented that none of KIIFB’s projects were revenue-generating.

“Borrowing in the name of development and spending without returns is like pouring water into the sea,” he said.

Philip also drew attention to multiple Comptroller and auditor general (CAG) reports that, he said, had criticised KIIFB for operating outside the state’s budgetary framework. Instead of acting on these findings, the government, he noted, chose to defend the agency through a resolution in the Assembly.

“KIIFB has become a parallel structure of borrowing and expenditure — unaccountable to the legislature and invisible to the people,” Philip asserted, portraying the institution not as an engine of progress, but as a shadow government of unchecked debt.

With IANS inputs