With protests in various parts of the country forcing the government to halt fresh approvals for special economic zones, the empowered group of ministers will decide next week on how to go ahead with the process while addressing the contentious issue of land acquisition.
"The Empowered GoM will discuss what to do with the proposals where land acquisition is not an issue and where it is an issue," Commerce and Industry Minister Kamal Nath said.
He, however, said there was no proposal before the EGoM's scheduled meeting on January 22 to limit the number of SEZs that can be approved in a particular sector.
"It was decided (in the previous meeting of EGoM) that the issue of sector-wise caps on SEZs would be examined after 100 SEZs are notified and we are far from that," he said.
So far, 62 SEZs have been notified. In total, the board of approval for SEZs has given final clearances to 237 projects and in-principle nod to another 160. More than half of these zones are in the IT sector.
Since October, no new SEZs have been given approval. The BoA has postponed its meeting twice this month.
The EGoM on SEZs is meeting on Monday after a gap of five months as scheduled. At its meeting in August, it had removed the limit on number of SEZs from 150. It had also decided to review the situation in next five months or when 75 SEZs become operational, whichever was earlier.
Nath said land acquisition was not an SEZ issue as state governments also acquire land for other projects and it was for them so see whether their laws in this regard need to change.