THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: A Rs 5.4-crore nationwide campaign condemning the borrowing curbs imposed by the central government was among the publicity expenses worth hundreds of crores that the Kerala Infrastructure Investment Fund Board (KIIFB) took on its books. When KIIFB’s own auditor sought to know how the campaign was related to its functioning, the management reasoned that it was “unavoidable to sustain the existence of KIIFB”. In fact, the borrowing curbs stemmed partly from KIIFB’s own loans, which the Centre counted as state borrowing from 2020-21.
An analysis of KIIFB’s annual reports from 2016-17 to 2025-26 reveals that it spent nearly Rs 475 crore on publicity and promotional programmes. Nearly half of this, Rs 216 crore, was towards ‘Ente Keralam’, the previous LDF government’s anniversary celebrations, over three years. It is more than double the Rs 87 crore the board ever released for SC/ST development projects.
KIIFB spent Rs 52.03 crore on Ente Keralam in 2022-23, Rs 67.45 crore in 2023-24 and Rs 96.44 crore in 2025-26. The amounts were booked as project costs on the basis of government orders. For 2023-24, the auditor said it was “not able to express our opinion on authenticity of expenses” relating to Ente Keralam and other items.
Such wasteful expenditure not just unwarranted but scandalous: Economist
The agencies engaged that year were nominated, and one of them charged a 20% administrative fee. For 2022-23, the auditor noted that in many cases, work orders were issued to agencies “after completion of work and receipt of invoices”, and that the spending was not covered by the budget. In 2023-24, KIIFB spent Rs 12.95 crore on infrastructure for Keraleeyam festival.
The board’s promotional spending, which until 2018-19 was less than Rs 2 crore a year, rose sharply in election years. This increased to Rs 25.33 crore in 2019-20, including Rs 13.61 crore for the ‘Kerala Nirmithi’ exhibitions inaugurated by then CM Pinarayi Vijayan. In 2020-21, ahead of the assembly election, it rose to Rs 42.38 crore.
When the Nirmithi exhibitions were halted due to Covid, KIIFB ran constituency-wise programmes on 14 television channels and radio ads “propagating infrastructure development in Kerala over the last 5 years”, the annual report says. In 2025-26, ahead of the most recent assembly election, publicity and promotional spending reached Rs 203.72 crore, according to the UDF government-appointed Sudha Pillai committee.
The auditor qualified KIIFB’s accounts on publicity spending for three years in a row.
For 2023-24, besides Ente Keralam, it flagged Rs 15.93 crore of media work awarded without open tender, including the anti-Centre campaign. In 2024-25, Rs 30.83 crore of media work was handed to nominated agencies, against the board’s own rules requiring an open tender. In 2025-26, the auditor flagged Rs 79.98 crore in promotional costs, saying it could not satisfy itself about the vendor-selection process.
KIIFB has maintained in its reports that the event expenses were incurred on the basis of government orders, and that its promotional spending was within the budget approved by its general body. Economist K P Kannan was scathing in his criticism of the spending. “Such wasteful expenditure using scarce and borrowed public resources is not just unwarranted but scandalous,” he said. “This is just one of the many cases of impropriety and illegality unearthed by the Sudha Pillai committee. It is up to the government to act.”