Mumbai: The government has decided against removing the land ceiling and relaxing the ban on compulsory land acquisition for special economic zones (SEZs) by states ahead of an election year.

This will mean the threshold limit of SEZs of 5,000 hectares will remain and there won't be any compulsory acquisition.

The empowered group of ministers (eGoM) on SEZs, headed by external affairs minister Pranab Mukherjee, which suggested no policy changes, also did not take a decision on the finance ministry's proposal of imposing at 12.5 per cent minimum alternate tax on SEZ units.

''There is no policy change. What was there will continue,'' commerce minister Kamal Nath said, adding the eGoM only discussed the operational issues like inter-ministry differences on service tax exemptions of the SEZ projects.

Big developers like Omaxe and DLF as also major industrial groups like Reliance Industries had taken up with the government the issue of lifting the land ceiling of 5,000 hectares for multi-product SEZs.

The eGoM was expected to examine the requests and take a decision. It was also expected to decide on the Kerala government's request for allowing acquisition of land for building SEZs owned by the government.

The SEZ law bans forcible acquisition of land and a project could be held up even with a single landowner refusing to part with his land. The ban followed violent protests in various parts of the country, including in Nandigram in West Bengal and Maha Mumbai in Maharashtra.