The pharma companies which have shifted their bases from Andhra Pradesh to Baddi in Himachal Pradesh, to avail tax concessions are now feeling the heat, as most of them are unhappy with the inadequate infrastructure facilities at the special economic zone (SEZ).
The firms are facing problems as there are no proper road and rail connectivity to the area and more over they are facing constraints with regard to availability of skilled human resources and training facilities.
The social infrastructure facilities like educational institutes, recreational centres and entertainment facilities are seen nowhere in the locality. “While a number of pharma companies from AP set up units in Baddi in HP, to avail the tax concessions, most of them are not happy because of inadequate Rail and road connectivity and constraints with regard to availability of skilled human resources. Availability of technical and supervisory staff is a big challenge in the locality,” says Prof. ORS Rao, MD Cygnus and vice chancellor ICFAI University in Jharkhand.
To scale up their businesses in Baddi, pharma units need to have the support of local infrastructure facilities such as educational, training and other essential social infrastructure. Because of lack of inadequate facilities many senior executives from AP are unwilling to relocate or scale up their operations in Baddi.
Even the situation of pharma industry in Andhra Pradesh is not as rosy as it looked earlier. During the past one year the industry had faced many problems from environment enforcement agencies, regulatory bodies and of course power shocks. Especially with regard to availability of power, never in the past had the pharma and bulk drug industry had faced such a worst situation. “Leave alone the regular power cuts, the government is insisting on power holidays for industry and in addition to that, the power tariffs in the state have sky rocketed because of which pharma sector is incurring crores of rupees of loss every day,” opined an industry analyst.
When asked about his suggestion to improve the condition of pharma industry, Prof Rao said, “As the industry in AP is facing a lot of hardships due to power cuts, the state government should consider giving power subsidy to small and medium sized companies on the basis of actual production.”