Top Sebi sources told The Financial Express that the level for the infotech and related companies may also be brought up to Rs 100 crore but getting them to have minimum issue sizes of Rs 250 crore may not be a good idea.

"Sebi had, earlier, brought up the idea of having Rs 100 crore as the threshold level for offer size, and this may be the level decided upon finally," sources in Sebi said.

This would mean that Rs 100 crore then becomes the generally acceptable minimum issue size threshold for all companies, both general and new economy. The reason why infotech, communication and media companies are generally being seen to be having problems raising such huge amounts since they may not require that kind of funds to be raised and may also have problems doing so. Keeping the threshold for all companies to Rs 250 crore may then prove to be counter-productive for such companies, the sources pointed out.

Sebi feels the 10 per cent level for minimum offer is required in the interest of a number of companies who feel having a minimum offer of 25 per cent is prohibitive and are therefore turning towards overseas markets like the Nasdaq and the New York Stock Exchange to raise capital, effectively drying up the domestic capital market.

Foreign markets do not have such high minimum offer levels, and that proves to be a help for companies in India when they need to raise capital.