Pharmaceutical Export Promotion Council (Pharmexcil) will be approaching the union commerce ministry to include expenses incurred on patent registration in the Market Access Initiative (MAI) fund. The Council, which has organised a high profile foreign trade official-industry meet in Mumbai this week, anticipates to take the feedback from the exporters on various schemes under the MAI and Market Development Assistance (MDA) for further enhancing the scope of these export incentives.

It may be recalled that the union commerce ministry has recently asked Pharmexcil to submit its proposals for the Market Access Initiative (MAI) fund for the year 2004-'05.

The MAI fund, which is extended for export promotion projects including market research, product 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 is expected during the next couple of years too.

Speaking to Pharmabiz after a meeting with the joint secretary, Dept of Commerce, D B Modi, chairman, Pharmexcil, said that the revamped MAI scheme will focus on sustained export promotion efforts, rather than one-time projects like participation in an overseas trade fair.

"Moreover, funds will be spent only on focused markets and products that are identified by the commerce department. Assistance from the MAI scheme will be routed through government departments and organisations, export promotion councils, commodity boards and recognised industry chambers," he said.

He added that individual exporters could access the scheme for registration of pharmaceuticals, bio-tech products in select markets. Whereas, the rules for MDA, under which nearly Rs 25 crore per annum will be spent from '04-05 onwards, have been tightened to get a better value for money.

The MDA, which meant for small exporters with a turnover up to Rs 5 crore per annum, will now fund only promotion efforts aimed at the Latin American, African, CIS and Asean markets. However, participation in fairs in other countries will be promoted in a limited manner, it is learnt.