Thursday, August 17 2006 17:08 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

New Delhi: The Government is likely to raise the number of Special Economic Zones (SEZ) from 150 at present in view of the enthusiastic response from manufacturing and services companies.

"There was no final limit to the number of SEZs that can be established. The limit of 150 was set to see the response. Now, a review will be held (before more SEZs are approved)," Commerce and Industry Minister Kamal Nath said after inaugurating the Marketing Summit organised by Confederation of Indian Industry (CII).

The limit of 150 SEZs was fixed by the Empowered Group of Ministers (EGoM), headed by Defence Minister Pranab Mukherjee and the group can raise the limit.

"When the limit was set, we had decided to review the situation once we reached the 150 mark. The SEZ Act does not put any limit to the number of SEZs that can be set up across the country," Nath said.

He said there has been a demand from chief ministers of some states to increase the number of SEZs that can be set up.

The government's SEZ scheme has drawn a tremendous response from corporates.

The Board of Approval in the Commerce Ministry in its three meetings so far has approved 150 proposals, less than six months after the SEZ Act and SEZ Rules came into affect in February this year.

The Government has so far received about 388 proposals, including from companies such as Reliance, Infosys, Wipro, DLF and ONGC.