This clarification from the TN Health Minister comes after a court dispute revealed that ICMR had paid Rs.600 for test kits that cost only Rs.245.
Tamil Nadu Health Minister C Vijayabaskar on Monday said the state has not incurred any expenditure on rapid antibody test kits from China as the 24,000 kits imported are being returned to Chinese company Wond Fo and the other orders placed with it are cancelled.
He was responding to the questions raised by DMK President MK Stalin and AMMK leader TTV Dhinakaran on the high cost of procuring the rapid antibody test kits.
In a statement, Vijayabaskar said as per the orders of Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), 24,000 kits imported from Wond Fo are being returned and the remaining purchase orders have been cancelled. The cancellation comes after ICMR on Monday ordered states to stop using kits from two Chinese companies Wond Fo and Zhuhai Livzon Diagnostics.
This comes following reports from multiple states that the kits are faulty. The issue arose a week ago, when the Rajasthan government stopped using the rapid antibody testing Kits for coronavirus after they delivered inaccurate results. Raghu Sharma, the Rajasthan Health Minister revealed that the rapid test kits had only 5.4 per cent accuracy.
Vijayabaskar said the state government had placed an order with Wond Fo, a company approved by ICMR, at a price of Rs 600 excluding taxes. He said the ICMR had approved seven manufacturers and Wond Fo is one of them.
Wond Fo had appointed Cadilla Pharma and Matrix Labs as importer agents. The last two companies had appointed several dealers like Aark Pharmaceutical, Shan-Bio Tech, Rare Metabolics and others across the country.
A court dispute between the distributor and importer of COVID-19 tests on Monday had revealed that ICMR agreed to pay almost 2.5 times the price at which rapid antibody test kits are imported. And because ICMR set the price at Rs 600 per kit, even state governments like the government of Tamil Nadu had to set an exorbitant amount per kit. The actual cost of the kit only comes up to Rs 245.
While the ICMR had placed an order for five lakh kits at Rs 600 per kit excluding tax with Aark Pharmaceutical, the Tamil Nadu government had placed its orders with Shan Bio-Tech at the same price.
Vijayabaskar said neighbouring Andhra Pradesh and Kerala had placed their orders for Rs 730 and Rs 699 per unit, respectively, while the ICMR had placed its second order at Rs 795 per unit.
Opposition questions decision
DMK President MK Stalin on Monday had asked why the Tamil Nadu government paid Rs 600 per rapid test kit when the cost of a single kit was only Rs 245.
He also welcomed the Delhi High Court’s judgement that the rapid test kits should not be sold at a price more than Rs 400 including goods and services tax (GST).
Stalin said based on the information available in the Delhi High Court’s judgement, the Chinese company sold its rapid test kits at Rs 225 and the freight cost is about Rs 20 per kit taking the total cost to Rs 245 per kit.
The DMK Chief had asked the Tamil Nadu Chief Minister K Palaniswami to explain why the government sourced the kits at Rs 600 per kit and that too through a city-based intermediary not recognised by Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) instead of directly from the Chinese company.
The Tamil Nadu government had earlier said the test kits were bought at a price fixed by the Central government and from the company recognised by the Centre.
AMMK leader TTV Dhinakaran has also demanded a white paper on the sourcing of test kits by the Tamil Nadu government.
Following the Delhi High Court judgement, the Union government issued a statement saying it had not paid a single rupee for the antibody kits.
Also read: ICMR agreed to pay 2.5 times the price for rapid test kits, Delhi HC judgment shows
(With inputs from IANS)
Source: The News Minute