The Department of Pharmaceuticals (DoP) has submitted the revised Pharmaceutical Technology Upgradation Assistance Scheme (PTUAS) to the Expenditure Finance Committee (EFC) for review.

The objective of PTUAS is to facilitate Small and Medium Pharma Enterprises (SMEs) to upgrade their plant and machinery according to the World Health Organization (WHO)/Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP) standards, so to enable them to participate and compete in global markets.

Although the scheme was announced in 2014, the industry is yet to avail the benefits. However, in the revised scheme of PTUAS, the DoP has proposed an increase in the loan amount along with an increase in the number of companies who can avail the revised scheme.

It is likely that the implementation of the revised scheme will begin from the first quarter of the next financial year.

Navdeep Rinwa, Joint Secretary, DoP, informed, “We are bringing the revised PTUAS scheme for the next five years. It will help them to upgrade their quality standard. In the revised scheme, we have proposed for more loan amount and also the number of MSMEs which could be benefitted under the proposed scheme.”

“The scheme would help them (MSMEs) to move up to WHO cGMP standards. They could take a loan from banks and through interest subvention. The scheme would help them up to a certain percentage of interest, which will be given for three years. That way pharma companies can get loans at a very reasonable rate because the interest rate they would be paying will be much less to what banks would be charging,” he added.

It is likely that around five per cent interest subvention will be given for three years against the sanctioned loan amount. Although, it will be provided to only medium, small enterprises with proven track records.

Although the review meeting date is not yet finalised, reportedly it is likely to take place between January- February of next year.

There are around 7000 MSMEs in the country, who are likely to be benefitted from the scheme.