Special Correspondent
Panaji: The government has decided to pay a hefty amount of Rs 33 crore to pharmaceutical giant Cipla for settling the dispute with it pertaining to the Special Economic Zone (SEZ) land admeasuring 12,32,000 sq mt and located on the Keri Plateau in Ponda taluka.
The decision was taken at a meeting of the state cabinet headed by Chief Minister Pramod Sawant after Goa Industrial Development Corporation (GIDC) refused to pay the exorbitant amount to the pharma company to settle the issue.
The Comptroller and Auditor General of India, in its report had stated, “Meditab Specialties Pvt Ltd (a Cipla-associated company) was allotted land at a time when the Corporation was in the process of implementing a Pharma Park by itself on the land available at Keri, and the Corporation had already appointed (March 2006) a consultant for the purpose.”
The Chief Minister informed the state legislative assembly, during its ongoing monsoon session that the government has settled the issue and taken possession of the land allotted to Cipla, with new industries slated to come up on the land. “It was an old dispute dating back to 2007-2008,” Sawant said. Incidentally, Meditab Specialties Pvt Ltd was initially seeking a refund from GIDC to settle the land dispute.
However, GIDC refused the demand.
Chairman of GIDC Aleixo Reginaldo Lourenco told ‘The Navhind Times’ that the government, and not the Corporation, will now pay the amount. “The GIDC had already refused to pay this amount,” he said.
The government had cancelled its SEZ policy in 2008 and directed GIDC to repossess land from all seven SEZ allottees. Aggrieved by this decision, the SEZ allottees had approached the High Court challenging the government decision to cancel the allotment. Later, the matter reached the Supreme Court and in 2018, while the matter was still pending in court as also the case was very much in favour, the cabinet took a decision to settle the matter out of court by paying the SEZ allottees the amount earlier paid by them along with interest earned.
Cipla, however, did not accept the offer. The total cost of the land allotted to the company in 2006 was Rs 9.85 crore, which, along with lease rentals and accrued interest, rose to Rs 22 crore on the basis of settlement formula decided by the state cabinet in 2018. Again in 2025, the cabinet took another decision where the settlement was arbitrarily increased from Rs 22 crore to Rs 33 crore.
