Finance Minister T.M. Thomas Isaac has again come out against the comments by the Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) in the State Finance Audit Report for the year ending March 2019 and reiterated that the CAG cannot include comments in the report without seeking explanation from the State.
“The CAG report is a challenge to the Legislative Assembly. We will move against it politically as it is the hidden agenda of the BJP to sabotage Constitutional bodies in the country,” Dr. Isaac told a press conference here on Tuesday.
The Finance Minister said the CAG report had been prepared with the intention of tarnishing the image of the State government. “It is the acts of the Accountant General who has been transferred from here that resulted in the adverse comments. The Left Democratic Front will take it up in the electioneering for the forthcoming polls to the Assembly. Let the people decide whether they want KIIFB-funded development projects.”
RBI nod
Pointing out that the Reserve Bank of India has given NOC for the loans taken by the KIIFB from abroad, Dr. Isaac said the KIIFB was a corporate entity and that only States had been barred from taking foreign loans. KIIFB loans were not government loans. The CAG had said that the liability would fall on the State if repayment was not made, he said.
The Finance Minister said he had requested Speaker P. Sreeramakrishnan for discussing the CAG report tabled by him with comments in the House on Monday and the Speaker had to take a call on it. “I have no concerns over the discussion.”
To a query, Dr. Isaac said he was not aware of the contents of the report finalised by the Privileges and Ethics Committee of the Assembly that examined the breach of privilege moved by Congress legislator V.D. Satheesan against him. Mr. Satheesan had alleged that Dr. Isaac had infringed on the rights of the House by disclosing the contents of the report.
