Chairman of Group of Ministers (GoM) on national pharmaceutical policy Sharad Pawar will meet the representatives of small scale industries (SSIs) of the pharma industry on October 13 to hear their views before finalising the policy.

According to sources, a delegation of SSIs met Sharad Pawar on October 9 and pleaded for the need to hear their views before finalizing the policy, for which the GoM had already held two meetings and the third one is just round the corner. "We have been asked to give a presentation on October 13 in Delhi", a source said.

The GoM on national pharmaceutical policy had its second meeting on September 12 in which the GoM had invited all the major pharmaceutical associations including IPA, IDMA and the CIPI to air their views on the policy. Though the CIPI, which represents around 5000 small pharma units in the country, was also invited by the GoM to present its views in the meeting on September 12, the small scale units feel let down by the collective presentation made by the industry associations as the presentation did not mention about their major demands.

Sources said the SSIs will utilize this opportunity to apprise the GoM chairman of their major demands which included reduction of excise duty to eight per cent and the raising of SSI investment limit from the existing Rs 1.5 crore to Rs 5 crore. The SSIs are deeply sore over the fact their major demands were overlooked by the industry associations when they made the presentation before the GoM on September 12.

Instead of making individual presentations, the associations made a collective presentation to the GoM on September 12 without specifying anything about the issues of the SSIs, a senior SSI activist said.

Though the focus of the presentation made by the industry as a whole was on the controversial issue of price control, all the individual associations have their own demands. While the SSIs are also arguing for price monitoring by the government in lieu of the present price control, they also wanted to include other major demands like reduction of excise duty, hike in abatement and hike in SSI criterion for having a level playing field.

The GoM which had already heard the views of the industry associations, will hear the views of the common man before finalizing the policy which has been long overdue. For keeping itself abreast of the common man's interest, the GoM has invited some NGOs to present the case. Though no date has yet been finalized for hearing the NGOs' views, sources said it may happen any time now.