Thiruvananthapuram, Feb 6 (IANS) Former Kerala Finance Minister Thomas Isaac said on Thursday that the state government has to collect the toll to raise the revenue for the state.
“Times have changed. We will have to collect the toll on roads and bridges built using KIIFB funds,” said Isaac.
The former minister added that the toll collection has been forced upon the state government due to the wrong policies of the Union government, where funds to the state are not being allocated.
“The state will have to look for newer avenues to raise revenues,” said the former minister.
The KIIFB project was touted in 2016 by the former CPI-M Finance Minister Thomas Isaac, terming it as his ‘pet project’.
However, in 2016, the former Finance Minister told the Assembly that tolls would not be collected on roads and bridges constructed by KIIFB. But the former minister withdrew his early statement, saying, “What I said then, that doesn’t mean, I have to stick to it.”
Notably, it was Isaac who started mobilising and channelling funds for facilitating planned, hassle-free and sustainable development of both the physical and social infrastructure of KIIFB.
KIIFB was established as the principal funding arm of the Kerala government in 1999 aimed to channelise funds for critical and large public infrastructure projects in the state.
Meanwhile, Kerala Leader of Opposition (LoP) V.D. Satheesan slammed the Pinarayi Vijayan-led government over tax collection and failure of the Kerala Infrastructure Investment Board (KIIFB) project.
“Right from the start, we knew KIIFB would be a tragedy and a big failure. We have now seen that KIIFB has turned out to be a complete failure. Come what may, we will not allow this government to collect tolls,” said the Kerala LoP.
Trouble has been brewing in Kerala after the state government decided to give the green signal to consider introducing a toll tax on all roads developed using KIIFB funds to raise revenue.
KIIFB is mulling to collect tolls on all roads constructed at a cost of Rs 50 crore and above and the various modalities of how to collect the tolls are also being undertaken, leading the opposition led by Congress to come down heavily on the state government.
–IANS
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