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DoP begins process for implementation of PTUAS to assist medium enterprises to upgrade their units to WHO-GMP compliant
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Ramesh Shankar, Mumbai
June 30 , 2015
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After several years of dilly-dallying, the Department of Pharmaceuticals
(DoP) has finally started the process for the implementation of its
ambitious project the Pharmaceutical Technology Upgradation Assistance
Scheme (PTUAS) as it has now called for expression of interest (EOI) for
selection of a financial institution to manage the scheme.
The
PTUAS scheme is being implemented by the DoP to assist pharmaceutical
medium enterprises (Mes) in the country to upgrade their units to make
them WHO-GMP compliant. Under this much awaited scheme, around 500
medium scale pharmaceutical enterprises are intended to be covered
through soft loans upto Rs. 4 crore per unit at a concessional rate of 5
per cent per annum.
To operationalise the scheme, the DoP
approached the Expenditure Finance Committee (EFC) which suggested that a
financial institution may be selected to implement the scheme under the
aegis of DoP, at minimum fee to be charged as administrative charges
for the services rendered and also bear the risk of non-repayment of
loans if any.
The financial institution is being roped in for
disbursement and management of soft loans to medium sector
pharmaceutical enterprises out of a corpus fund proposed to be created
by the DoP to render financial assistance under the PTUAS scheme to
medium enterprises for compliance to WHO/international GMPs.
As
per the initial plan of the DoP, the PTUAS scheme was to come into
effect from July 1, 2010 and the date was later postponed to January 1,
2011. But, the DoP could not launch the scheme so far mainly due to
objections raised by the planning commission. The planning commission's
objections in this regard came in the wake of its earlier experience
with a similar scheme named CLCSS which was literally rejected by the
industry as the scheme had several lacunae.
According to senior
officials in the DoP, the PTUAS scheme would go a long way in improving
quality, efficacy and efficiency of drugs manufactured by medium
enterprises. It will also strengthen the presence of medium enterprises
in domestic as well as international markets given the globalised nature
of pharmaceutical industry. The PTUAS scheme will also stimulate
continuous technological upgradation and trigger healthy competition
among the pharma MEs towards improving quality of drugs by availing soft
loan assistance. It is expected that by the end of 13th Five Year Plan,
all medium enterprises would have state-of-the-art manufacturing
facilities conforming to WHO-GMP/ international norms.
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