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DoP re-opens application window for API CF sub-scheme
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Gireesh Babu, New Delhi
December 14 , 2024
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The Department of Pharmaceuticals (DoP) has re-opened the application window for the sub-scheme to assist pharma units to set up common facilities, under the scheme for Strengthening of Pharmaceuticals Industry (SPI) for more than a month for eligible companies.
The Department has decided to keep the application window open for the companies to apply under the sub-scheme Assistance to Pharmaceutical Industry for Common Facilities (API-CF), between December 11, 2024 and January 13, 2025. The interested applicants may apply through Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI), which is the project management agency (PMA) for the sub-scheme, through online mode.
The decision is at a time when a section of the industry has been alleging that the schemes from the Centre to upgrade technology and common facilities are not accessible to the small units, who require a hand holding. The use of such schemes is crucial especially when the Centre has mandated upgradation of manufacturing standards under the revised Schedule M, which is slated to be implemented on companies below Rs. 250 crore turnover also from next year onwards.
The SPI, implemented by DoP with a financial outlay of Rs. 500 crore within a tenure from FY 2021-2022 to FY 2025-26, has three sub-schemes including APICF, RPTUAS, and Pharmaceutical and Medical Device Promotion and Development Scheme (PMPDS). The PMPDS is to create awareness, to conduct surveys, studies, organize seminars, events.
It may also be noted that the Department has modified and revamped another sub-scheme under the SPI, the Pharmaceuticals Technology Upgradation Assistance Scheme (PTUAS) more than once in the past to suit the requirements of the industry. Certain clauses of PTUAS were modified in January, 2023, and the sub-scheme was revamped in March, 2024 to woo more micro and small industries. It was once again modified in September, 2024, according to DoP.
API-CF is a sub-scheme to provide infrastructure support for pharma Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) clusters for strengthening the infrastructure facilities. In March, last year, the DoP has said that under the sub-scheme, the government has approved or shortlisted support for eight MSME projects, of which three projects were to come up with a total investment of Rs. 54.7 crore.
This includes the Chennai Pharma Industrial Infrastructure Upgradation Company (CPIIUC), in Tamil Nadu; Inducare Pharmaceuticals and Research Foundation (IPRF), Pune, Maharashtra; and Kala Amb Infrastructure Development Company (KIDC), Sirmaur district, Himachal Pradesh.
According to SIDBI, the sub-scheme is to strengthen the existing pharmaceutical clusters’ capacity for their sustained growth by creating tangible assets as common facilities.
Pharma manufacturing units in a cluster, who have come together to form a Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) to execute the project of developing a common facility and the pharma clusters promoted by the state governments are the intended beneficiaries of the scheme. There shall be a minimum five pharma units as members for an SPV to be eligible for the sub-scheme.
The limit of incentive is 70% of the approved project cost or Rs. 20 crore, whichever is less, as per approval of the Scheme Steering Committee (SSC). In the case of Himalayan States and States in the Northeast Region, the grant-in-aid would be Rs. 20 crore per Cluster or 90 per cent of the project cost of the Common Infrastructure Facilities (CIF), whichever is less.
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