The Congress on Monday asked the government to place in the public domain all documents related to any procurement over the past month to fight the coronavirus outbreak after a legal dispute between two companies exposed the overpricing of rapid-testing kits imported from China.
The party sought a thorough investigation while expressing shock at the tendency to indulge in profiteering in the time of a global pandemic.
“This is in the interest of the people who are in unprecedented distress,” spokesperson Manish Tewari said, asked if the party would move court as the government has never accepted its demands for investigation.
“All options are open before us if the government refuses to investigate.”
Rahul Gandhi tweeted: “That any human being would try & profiteer from the immeasurable suffering of millions of his brothers & sisters, is beyond belief & comprehension. This scam is an insult to every Indian. I urge the Prime Minister to act swiftly to bring the corrupt to justice.”
In another tweet in Hindi, he said: “We feel ashamed of this corrupt mentality. It is disgusting. The country will never forgive these people.”
Tewari said: “If an arbitrage of Rs 18.75 crore can be levied on a transaction of Rs 30 crore, you can imagine what kind of profit is being made from the people who are confined to their homes in such distress.
“The economy has collapsed and people are losing their jobs. We demand the government place all the documents related to every purchase in the public domain. The nation should know who is minting money from this tragedy.”
The legal dispute, which reached Delhi High Court, was between Rare Metabolics Life Sciences Pvt Ltd and Matrix Labs. It was found that the rapid-testing kits imported from China for Rs 245 a piece (the landed cost, which includes transportation) was being sold to the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) for Rs 600 per kit.
The court found the pricing exorbitant as the same distributor was selling the same kit to the Tamil Nadu government for Rs 400.
Justice Najmi Waziri said Covid-19 test kits should be made available urgently at the lowest possible price.
In the “present extraordinary circumstances”, when the country was going through an “unprecedented medical crisis”, with disquiet over one’s safety and the economy at a standstill, public interest must outweigh the private, the court said.
“The kits/tests should be sold at a price not beyond Rs 400 each,” PTI quoted the bench as saying.
However, Friday’s order would not affect the price of the kits to be sold to the ICMR and the Tamil Nadu government.
The Congress has demanded a probe into the controversy, saying how could it “blindly trust other procurements”. The overpricing has come to light at a time of severe resource crunch — an item of Rs 245 being purchased for Rs 600. Even at Rs 400, the mark-up is Rs 155.
“We could understand if this was done by the Chinese companies, some of which
are acting like mercenaries in this time of pandemic. But this is being done here and responsibility must be fixed. If this
is the case with one transaction, how can we blindly trust other procurements?” Tewari said.
“We were concerned about the abnormally low testing in India. Now we know this scam is one factor delaying testing. Children, housewives, older people are contributing to the PM-CARES Fund to fight this crisis but this is how their money is being used. What is happening?”
Additional reporting by PTI