The Telangana government has sought the Centre’s support for the pharmaceutical industry in the State.

In a letter to Union Minister for Chemicals and Fertilisers Sadananda Gowda, Telangana Minister of Industries KT Rama Rao has sought a slew of measures to support the pharma industry in the State, including reduction of GST on Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients (APIs) to 12 per cent from 18 per cent and incentives for export promotion, among others.

Telangana is the largest pharmaceutical hub in the country contributing more than 35 per cent of the national production and is home to more than 800 Life Sciences companies employing about 120,000 people.

Referring to the problems faced by the industry, Rama Rao said: “Industry has started to experience financial burden due to reduced production capacity, shortage of labour, price pressure caused by supply chain issues and maintaining a large skilled workforce on payrolls among the many other deeper issues as a result of Covid-19.”

More than 80 per cent of this sector is of small and medium companies and it is “extremely critical” to support the pharmaceutical industry with special focus, he added.

Cost of operations of the industry has increased owing to the spurt in cost of raw materials, increased logistics costs, reduced capacities, interim measures to comply with the lockdown guidelines, etc.

“I urge the Government of India to expedite both income tax and GST refunds to these companies. GoI should also consider extending a moratorium on tax payments for the next 6 months, atleast for the MSME sector, to further ease the financial stress on companies,” Rama Rao said.