The government today denied there was any plan to create a chemical zone in the country.
Asked whether the government proposes to declare certain areas as chemical zones to make drug-manufacturing plants more effective and viable, Minister of State for Chemicals and Fertilisers Srikant Jena said there was no such plan.
The minister said in a written reply in Rajya Sabha that the government had notified the Petroleum, Chemical and Petrochemical Investment Region Policy (PCPICR) in 2007 to boost manufacturing and export in the sector, apart from generating employment.
In a separate reply, he said the National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (NPPA) had issued two notifications last year to reduce the prices of scheduled drug formulations so that excise duty benefits passed on to consumers.
The minister also informed the Parliament through another reply that the high level committee on price negotiations for the patented drugs has not yet submitted its report. The committee was constituted in 2007.
