Though the small and medium scale pharma units in the country are up in arms against the government apathy on export promotions, the Market Access Initiative (MAI), the commerce ministry's fund reimbursement scheme for expenditure incurred on developing export markets, lies grossly underutilized by the exporters.

The MAI fund, which is disbursed through the concerned Export Promotion Councils (EPCs), has been utilized by only less than 10 per cent of the total supposed beneficiaries among the pharmaceutical sector. The sources from Pharmaceutical Export Promotion Council (Pharmexcil) and the Basic Chemicals, Pharmaceuticals and Cosmetics Export Promotion Council (Chemexcil) said that there were only five or six applications received from their members for the MAI scheme during the year, which is not even one tenth of the expected.

The MAI scheme that is extended for export promotion projects including market research, registration, studies to evolve strategies compatible with WTO norms, and other product development activities, has been recently revamped with much wider scope than the existing market development fund (MDA) by the government.

Early this year, the government had announced that it had decided to pump in nearly Rs 450 crore in the medium term for export marketing and sales promotion activities for various export sectors. For the revised MAI scheme, which is effective from April 1, 2004, the finance ministry has sanctioned Rs 140 crore during this financial year in total and it is learnt that a similar or higher budget was expected during the next couple of years too.

With this scheme, the exporters through their respective export promotion councils will get assistance for establishing warehouses and showrooms in selected markets. With an outlay for the current year increased to Rs 40 crore, the budget for MAI is now estimated at nearly Rs 450 crore for four years for the EPCs.

As per the commerce ministry's scheme on reimbursement of registration charges for product registration abroad, assistance is available on reimbursement basis for registration charges paid by an exporter of pharmaceuticals (including biotechnology products). The exporter is required to send the request through the Council. Preference shall be given to the small and medium entrepreneurs. 50 per cent of the registration charge subject to a ceiling of Rs 5 lakh for each registration shall be reimbursed. An exporter can apply five registrations in a year and the total ceiling for each exporter is Rs 25 lakh p.a.

In the case of R&D scheme, selected exporters would be assisted in modernizing and upgrading the identified products as per the needs of the specific markets. The Council would act as coordinator. 25 per cent of the total approved cost subject to a ceiling of Rs 50 lakh for each product would be funded. Both the schemes could be availed by any pharmaceutical exporter, irrespective of its size / export turnover.

It may be recalled that this year, the MAI budget of the commerce ministry has been increased sharply. Though the Commerce Ministry had asked the Councils, newly formed Pharmaceutical Export Promotion Council (Pharmexcil) to submit its proposals for the Market Access Initiative (MAI) fund for the year 2004-'05, the sources said that the actual number of applications recommended by the Council so far is less than ten.

The Council also had asked its members to take the opportunities, available through the MAI scheme. It has asked the members to get the registration charges made for product registrations abroad and get reimbursed by making use of this scheme.