The much delayed Rs 441-crore financial package to revive the ailing PSU pharma unit Indian Drugs and Pharmaceuticals Ltd (IDPL) will be further delayed, at least for another six months, as the GoM headed by defence minister AK Antony has referred the matter to the next government. The defence minister's decision in this regard comes mainly due to the resignation of two of the members of the GoM-- health minister Anbumani Ramadoss and labour minister Oscar Fernandes.

Both these ministers had resigned from the union cabinet on different grounds after the announcement of general elections last month. With the resignation of these two ministers, the GoM lost its sheen and Antony does not want the curtailed GoM to take any vital decision, so left the issue to the next government, the sources. As the issue is not in the priority list of the government, the already delayed clearance of the package will be further delayed.

IDPL is one of the four public sector pharma units in the country which was declared as sick way back in 1992 by the Board for Industrial & Financial Reconstruction (BIFR). The revival package was formulated and approved by BIFR in February 1994. The Board for Reconstruction of Public Sector Enterprises (BRPSE) recommended the present scheme for approval of the government.

The revival package was placed before the cabinet which considered the proposal at its meeting on May 17, 2007. As there was no consensus on the issue, it was referred to a group of ministers (GoM) for consideration. The GoM under AK Antony was constituted on June 1, 2007 and the first meeting was held on October 11, 2007. Other members of the panel are P Chidambaram, Ramvilas Paswan and Santosh Mohan Dev.

Earlier, the government was toying with the idea of seeking the Election Commission's nod to announce the package as the concerned ministries had finalized the package before the Commission announced the poll dates. After finalizing the package by different government departments involved in the process, the issue was left to the cabinet secretary to call the GoM meeting to officially announce the package. Since the government had finalized the package much before the election announcement, the government was hoping to get the Election Commission nod to announce the package to revive the ailing pharma PSU which is a pet scheme of union chemicals minister Ramvilas Paswan. But, after the resignation of the two ministers, GoM chairman AK Antony decided to leave the matter to the next government.

An early clearance of the revival scheme is very important as the government has the social obligation to manufacture and produce life-saving drugs at reasonable prices whereas the private companies have no such obligation to the general public. IDPL is also expected to play a key role in supplying drugs to the generic drug stores (Jan Aushadhis) being launched in each district of the country to ensure drugs at affordable prices to the poor sections of the society.