Govt should announce new scheme of export incentives in place of scrapped MEIS: IPA

23 Jan 2020 Evaluate

The Indian pharmaceutical industry, in its pre budget expectations, has said it expects the government to restore the tax benefit offered on research and development expenditure. The industry also hopes the government will announce incentives to encourage setting up bulk drug manufacturing units in the country, in addition to scale-up of spending on healthcare.

Indian Pharmaceutical Alliance’s (IPA) Secretary General -- Sudarshan Jain said India must move from predominantly branded generic drugs to discovering and developing new drugs; for that the government should resume tax exemption of 200 percent on R&D. Further, he sought government to announce incentives to set up 4-6 bulk drug clusters across India to reduce dependence on import. He also sought government to set up innovation clusters. besides, to give fillip to exports - IPA said the government should announce a new scheme of export incentives or subsidies in place of the now scrapped Merchandise Exports from India Scheme (MEIS) to promote pharmaceutical exports.

Under the Merchandise Exports from India Scheme (MEIS), the government provides duty benefits at different rates depending on product and country. The government had to scrap MEIS, as it wasn't compliant with WTO regulations. Pharma companies were major beneficiaries of the scheme. India's pharmaceutical exports rose 11 per cent to $19.2 billion in 2018-19.

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