Ahead of the department of pharmaceuticals' (DoP) crucial meeting on March 11 to formulate the nitty-gritties of the proposed Pharmaceutical Technology Upgradation Assistance Scheme (PTUAS) for the medium scale pharma units in the country, the SSI pharma units have urged the government to extend the scheme to them too.

The SSIs have brought to the notice of the DoP that even after five years of Schedule M implementation, there is no provision for government funding. Small units have not been provided any funding by government for compliance of Schedule M despite the fact that Najma Heptullah Subordinate Legislation Committee has directed the government not to close down SSIs if Schedule M has to be implemented. As a matter of fact, this matter has also not been circulated to state licensing authorities (SLAs) so far and many SSIs have been closed down (90 in Haryana alone and 285 in Maharashtra) or are under pressure as licenses are not being renewed/additional items are being denied unless Schedule M is complied, the SSIs informed the DoP.

Even though the DoP had tweaked the Credit Linked Capital Subsidy Scheme (CLCSS) all over the country as a means of funding for Schedule M compliance thereafter, the office of the development commissioner in the MSME has told the pharma industry that the funds under the CLCSS is not assessing funds needed by SME pharma units on introduction of Schedule 'M' by ministry of health.

In reply to an RTI filed by a pharma industrialist, deputy director (CLCSS) Arvind Choudhury, in his reply on November 27, 2009, had said, "The Credit Linked Capital Subsidy Scheme (CLCSS) is functioning with the 47 sub-sectors including pharma. The ministry is not assessing funds needed by SME pharma units on introduction of Schedule 'M' by ministry of health," the SSIs informed the DoP.

Asking the DoP to either extend the PTUAS scheme to the SSIs also or to come out with a similar scheme to the SSIs in the face of several impediments in availing the CLCSS scheme, the SSIs said that thousands of small drug manufacturers in the country are eagerly looking forward for the launch of a government scheme to upgrade their facilities to meet the GMP norm as they have no wherewithal to do so on their own.

The DoP's proposed PTUAS scheme is meant to provide financial assistance to the medium scale units by way of reimbursement of 5 percent point of the interest charged by the banks on the sanctioned loan on project technology upgradation amounting up to project cost/loan amount of Rs 10 crore.