NEW DELHI, May 19: The Department of Pharmaceuticals (DoP) will consider providing Rs 472.90-crore assistance to loss making public sector undertaking Hindustan Antibiotic Ltd (HAL) as part of a second revival package.
According to a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between DoP and HAL, a target has been set to make the PSU profitable and introduce new antibiotics in the market in the ongoing fiscal.
The DoP “will consider sanctioning Hindustan Antibiotic Ltd (HAL’s) second rehabilitation scheme, including funds support for capital items, working capital, VRS funding, funds for statutory compliances amounting to Rs 472.90 crore,” according to the MoU document.
HAL has been under the Board for Industrial & Financial Reconstruction (BIFR) fold since March 31, 1997. In 2006-07, the government had provided Rs 508.5 crore for rehabilitation.
As part of the revival plan envisaged in the MoU, the HAL would introduce high-value IVF products and fourth generation antibiotic formulations starting with additional five such formulations during the current fiscal, it added.
The public sector undertaking also plans to nearly double the capacity of streptocycline, an antibiotic against bacterial plant pathogens, from 72 lakh units per annum to 140 lakh per annum.
As per the MoU, HAL is targeting net profit of Rs 114.15 crore in the 2013-14 fiscal, against a projected net loss of Rs 51.57 crore in the previous fiscal.
The public sector undertaking is also eyeing gross sales of Rs 164 crore in 2013-14, compared to projected sales of Rs 75 crore in 2012-13.
HAL, which markets various life saving drugs like penicillin, was established by the government with active co-operation from World Health Organisation and UNICEF. (PTI)
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