Brumby won't reveal cost of Satyam deal

The Victorian government is refusing to reveal how much it paid an Indian company over a troubled IT venture.

The planned $75 million IT hub at Geelong, southwest of Melbourne, was dubbed the city's answer to Silicon Valley and was expected to create 2,000 jobs.

But the project is now in doubt after the head of the company driving it, Satyam, was jailed over a $1 billion accounting fraud.

The federal government has refused to back the project and the Geelong council is believed to have had its contribution refunded.

Victorian Premier John Brumby confirmed the state had made "modest payments" to Satyam but would not say how much.

And he believes the deal is not dead yet.

"I am advised that there has been an amount of money that's been paid to Satyam," Mr Brumby told reporters on Monday.

"That was paid on the basis of milestones achieved and all of this is part of a contractual arrangement."

Mr Brumby said the milestones related to site preparation undertaken at Geelong's Deakin University and the establishment of Satyam's headquarters in Melbourne.

He said Satyam remained one of the biggest IT companies in the world and the project was backed by a very strong business case.

"And so we would still hope that the company continues with this investment, we're still continuing to talk to the new chief executive, they've asked for some time to look at all of the arrangements that were proposed.

"So we hope that we can still secure this investment but I think at this stage it's a little early to say."

Opposition Leader Ted Baillieu said the government had to come clean on how much taxpayers had lost in the Satyam deal and what would happen to land earmarked for the IT hub.

"The premier must today tell Victorians how much cash they've handed over, what's the status of that project and is there an ongoing claim on that 10 hectares of land that was handed over," he said.