Former Finance Minister T.M. Thomas Isaac on Thursday defended the possible adoption of a revenue generating model for the Kerala Infrastructure Investment Fund Board (KIIFB) saying that the hurdles placed by the Centre before KIIFB necessitated reforms.

Addressing a press conference in the wake of reports that the LDF government was mulling toll/user fee collection from long-distance users of KIIFB-developed roads, Mr. Isaac said KIIFB was envisioned as an annuity-based model that would be devoid of levies such as tolls. But this may need changes in the context of the Centre treating KIIFB loans as direct debt of the State government.

Mr. Isaac said that if at all the government decides to impose tolls, they can be spread over 50 or 60 years to avoid burdening the public. In that way, the amount will be roughly one-fourth of the amount levied on national highways, according to him.

Mr. Isaac blamed the BJP-led Union government and the Congress-led UDF for the current predicament faced by KIIFB. He challenged the UDF and Opposition Leader V.D. Satheesan to suggest a viable alternative to take forward the massive infrastructure development enabled by the KIIFB model.

The former Finance Minister termed the Opposition charge and media reports that the government was contemplating tolls on KIIFB roads merely as a ploy to increase its revenue as “baseless.” Such allegations, he said, were merely attempts to scuttle the State’s development.

KIIFB put forth a model that was free of charges such as tolls. But it was the UDF that opposed it. The UDF supported the Union government stand that KIIFB loans should be treated as government debt, and as such, it would be cut from the State’s borrowings.

“Earlier, when I said that the National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) was also availing loans which were not considered debt of the Central government, and why only in the case of KIIFB should it be so, the UDF argued that NHAI was collecting tolls and repaying their loans. The UDF cannot accept anything without tolls,” Mr. Isaac alleged.

An alternative model such as KIIFB was necessitated by the infrastructure deficit that posed the biggest hurdle in the State’s progress. In the initial days of KIIFB, it did not attract opposition as nobody thought it would work. “When it did work, they realised that it had to stop. In that BJP and UDF are of one mind,” he said.