Oasis Commercial Pvt Ltd, which received the Kerala government's sanction to establish Rs 600-crore distillation and brewery units at Kanchikode in the Palakkad district, registered nine documents between 2022 and 2024 to own 23.92 acres of land.

Assembly records show that registration was done five times in 2022 (May 26, 27, June 16, July 5 and November 7). The last registration was done on July 31, 2024, five months after the Excise Commissioner sent a letter to the Additional Chief Secretary (ACS), Department of Taxes, recommending initial sanction for the projects related to foreign liquor compounding, blending and bottling unit, distillery, winery and brewery in a phased manner. The tender for the project was issued on May 15, 2023.

In the letter sent on February 6, 2024, the Excise Commissioner noted that the project will be one of the pioneer proposals to produce Extra Neutral Alcohol (ENA), which can generate revenue to the state exchequer and employment opportunities.

In the Abkari policy declared for 2023-24, the government had decided to promote the production of ENA in Kerala and grant permission to start distilleries to produce Ethanol. The government constituted a committee led by the then ACS to study and scrutinize the application for distillery, brewery and winery in the state. The committee formulated guidelines for processing applications, and one of the recommendations was that the project should have a minimum of 10 acres of land. The Excise Commissioner noted in the letter that the proposed project has 24-acre land. The Deputy Excise Commissioner, Palakkad and Joint Excise Commissioner, Central, had initially recommended the project.

The application submitted by the company mentioned that the pleasant industrial climate gave the company confidence for considering the setting up of Ethanol plant under the 'NITI Aayog-Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas' initiative for Ethanol blending in India 2020-2025 which provides an indicative target of 20% Ethanol blending under the Ethanol Blended Program (EBP ) by 2030. The company planned to invest Rs 600 crore in four phases.

The company has cited in the application that the area in its possession is free from the ecological and environmental fragile zones notified by the state and central governments.

In response to a question raised by Congress MLAs on Tuesday whether it was legal to register 24.59 acre land to a company when the ceiling limit is 15 acre, the Minister said that documents are registered as per relevant act and matters regarding ceiling limit are with the revenue department. In October 2022, the government modified the guidelines to grant exemption in land ceiling. It was decided to give concession/impose restriction on the entrepreneurs to hold land in excess of the ceiling area under the provisions of the Kerala Land Reforms Act 1963 to attract investment and to create employment opportunities. One of the new conditions was that an entrepreneur who wishes to invest in the field of industry, medical science, education, tourism, IT etc shall be allowed to hold the land above the ceiling limit (15 acre) subject to conditions that a minimum investment to the tune of Rs 10 crore per acre and generation of employment for at least 20 people per acre are satisfied.