These issues were discussed during a meeting called by Prabhu with representatives of the pharma and chemical industries.

On the pharma sector, the minister said several factors affected exports recently, especially to the US. The issues include pressure on drug pricing because of a record number of US ANDA (abbreviated new drug application) approvals, foreign regulatory issues and lack of blockbuster drugs going off patent in recent years.

The country’s pharma exports are likely to touch $19 billion in 2018-19 from $17.27 billion in 2017-18.

The exports to countries with stringent regulatory authorities, such as the US, EU, Canada, Australia and Russia, account for 51 per cent of the total shipments.

Commerce minister Suresh Prabhu on Tuesday expressed the need to extend the interest subsidy benefit to more products, including the chemical sector.

“The minister (Prabhu) elaborated that expansion of interest equalisation scheme needed to be done by adding more tariff lines, the process of environmental clearance to be speeded up, especially relating to product mix and also expeditious approval process,” the ministry said in a statement.

The government provides interest subsidy of 5 per cent to certain sectors, including the micro, small and medium sectors, under its interest equalisation scheme.

At present, the subsidy is also given to certain products in the chemical sector. It helps exporters get credit at affordable rates.

The Telegraph