Even as the planning commission is engaged in finalising the financial schemes of different ministries for the 12th Five Year Plan which begins from next year, the pharma industry has asked the government to enhance the disbursement limit under the Credit Linked Capital Subsidy Scheme (CLCSS) from the present Rs.1 crore to Rs.10 crore and also to enhance the subsidy under this scheme to 25 per cent from the present 15 per cent.
The industry has asked the Department of Pharmaceuticals (DoP) to take up the matter with the planning commission as it feels that the current CLCSS scheme up to Rs.1 crore is totally ineffective. There has been a long pending demand from the industry as the amount of Rs.1 crore was not adequate considering the nature of pharmaceutical industry in the country. If the government expands the scheme upto Rs.10 crore with 25 per cent subsidy, it will definitely encourage a large number of pharma companies to avail of this scheme, industry feels.
The industry has also asked the government for a similar scheme which has to be extended for GLP implementation with a limit of Rs.2 crore under 25 per cent subsidy.
Meanwhile, there is already a move in the DoP, which is presently engaged in preparing a proposal to be submitted to the planning commission for the 12th Five Year Plan, to enhance the disbursement limit under the CLCSS to Rs.2 crore and also to enhance the subsidy under this scheme to 25 per cent from the present 15 per cent.
The CLCSS scheme was introduced by the government several years ago to financially assist the small and medium units to upgrade their units as per GMP norms. But, there were few takers for the CLCSS scheme due to several complicated procedures which the SSI units found it difficult to follow. Subsequently, the scheme was withdrawn by the Planning Commission citing the reason of poor response.
After the failure of the CLCSS scheme and in view of the outcry for financial assistance from the SSIs for upgrading their units, the DoP mooted another scheme called Pharmaceutical Technology Upgradation Fund (PTUF). But, the Rs.560-crore PTUF scheme met with a premature death as the planning commission turned down the scheme on the ground that since the government has already started a scheme called CLCSS for the purpose of technology upgradation of SSI units, there was no need to launch another scheme for the same purpose.
Instead of introducing the PTUF scheme, the planning commission asked the DoP to tweak the CLCSS to make it more industry-friendly. After several rounds of meeting with concerned ministries, the DoP finally came out with a tweaked CLCSS scheme last year. But even after all these exercises, the SSIs are finding it difficult to get the required financial assistance from the government through this scheme as several features of the scheme are still not industry friendly, sources said.