Under pressure to stop indiscriminate approval of SEZ's, the Group of Ministers (GoM) on special economic zones (SEZ) have put a temporary moratorium on sanctioning new SEZs till at least 75 SEZs became operational across the country.

The decision by the GoM was taken after a heightened controversy whether there should be a cap on the number of SEZs.

While Commerce Ministry wanted the cap to be raised to at least 300, the Finance Ministry was of the view that present cap of 150 should be retained as otherwise SEZ’s could become a “revenue rip-offs” with almost all new manufacturing units coming up only in these zones to take advantage of massive tax concessions they enjoy.