After admonishing the planning commission for being unrealistic towards allocating adequate funds for the Department of Pharmaceuticals (DoP) in tune with the budget outlay fixed for the 11th Five Year Plan, the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Chemicals and Fertilisers has come down heavily on the 'rather uninspiring' attitude of the department in utilizing even the available fund.

The department has complained to the committee about the irrational approach of the planning commission in allotting funds, which has only sanctioned less than 30 per cent of the total outlay in last three years for the five year plan, resulting a lopsided plan expenditure in project executions under the DoP. However, further examination by the committee headed by Ananth Kumar, member of parliament, revealed that as against the Rs 91.77 crore sanctioned in 2007-08 and Rs 155.25 crore in 2008-09 as budget expenditure, the utilization by DoP was Rs 77.07 crore and Rs 109.83 crore respectively.

The committee, in its recent report, comments that while sanction of outlays by the planning commission for the three year period was unrealistic, the actual utilization of the available funds by the department had been “rather uninspiring”. Pointing out the disparity between the available fund and its utilisation, the committee extends that, “This clearly shows that the Department of Pharmaceuticals had grossly failed in proper utilization of funds, raising doubts over their capacity to plan and execute schemes, which is unfortunate, to say the least”.

During the examination of the committee, the department contended that even though it has formulated several proposals after being a separate entity, the projects are under examination of the planning commission. The DoP has proposed an allocation of Rs 1,694.16 crore for the remaining two years of 2010-11 and 2011-12.

The department, which was came as a separate entity on July 1, 2008, from the department of chemicals and fertilisers, has also failed to bring in any innovative proposal other than the taking forward the proposals put down before its establishment. “The Committee, however, regret to point out that neither any innovative proposal nor any marked initiative towards this end has been put forth in the Demands for Grants for the year 2009-10,” says the report.

The DoP also defended this criticism by stating that their proposals for an enhanced allocation of Rs 302.59 crore for the relevant period did not find favour with the Planning Commission and the Department had to maintain the same level of outlay of Rs 155.25 crore as was in the previous year. The department also maintained that it had to go ahead with their activities with the limited allocations.

The committee suggested that the DoP should gear up their machinery ensuring proper utilisation of the sanctioned outlays and undertake appropriate monitoring at various levels in order to ensure achievement of the plan targets. The department should also come out with new initiatives for the sustained growth of the pharma sector so that the creation of Department of Pharmaceuticals as a distinct entity is amply justified, concluded the report.

The committee found that even as the 11th Five Year Plan has recommended an outlay of Rs 1,396.17 crore for the Department of Pharmaceuticals for the period from 2007 to 2012, the allocation for the first three years – from 2007 to 2010 – was a meagre Rs 402.27 crore, which is less than 30 per cent of the total plan allocation.