the goan I network
PANAJI
The State-owned Goa Industrial Development Corporation’s (GIDC) desperate attempts to raise funds ostensibly to defray loan repayment obligations may be stymied by the bureaucracy and at the government level.
Senior bureaucrats dealing with the process of approving the proposal said the move of the State PSU to “auction” the entire lot of 23-odd lakh square meters of land retrieved from the promoter companies of the now aborted special economic zones (SEZs) is excessive and unwarranted.
Two files related to the matter have been moved by the GIDC for legal opinion to the office of the Advocate General as indicated earlier this week by Industries Minister Vishwajit Rane.
One of the files pertains to the auction of the land and the second deals with the proposal to pay up some Rs 54 crores to two of the SEZ promoter companies which are yet to be compensated for the land.
A top Secretary level bureaucrat who did not want to be identified, however said, that the cabinet of the late Manohar Parrikar had last year given its nod for the Corporation to raise Rs 150-crore commercial loan through the Oriental Bank of Commerce on the premise that just 5-lakh square meters of the SEZ land will be auctioned to finance the repayment.
The GIDC Board and Rane are justifying the urgency to auction the land with the fund requirement to defray repayment obligations of the huge Rs 150-crores commercial loan availed by it to “settle” the SEZ promoters and take back the land.
“Now the PSU is proposing to auction over 23-lakh square meters. In the current depressed market conditions it would be difficult to fetch a fair price,” said the Secretary-level bureaucrat.
Advocate General Devidas Pangam was not available for comment but sources in his office said some files from the GIDC had been moved.
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