Ensure one nation-one price for COVID vaccines: Cong on Centre’s new policy

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, April 20

The Congress on Tuesday questioned the government’s new liberalised COVID vaccine policy for all adults from May 1 saying non-determination of one pricing by the Centre would lead to unhealthy bidding abs profiteering.

The policy unveiled yesterday said the Centre would continue to provide free jabs to health, frontline and 45 years plus people at Government vaccine centres but the remaining persons — 18 years plus to under 45 years would need to get the jabs from the open market.

“This government keeps talking about one nation one election, one nation one constitution, one nation one ration card. Why not one nation one price for COVID vaccines? Why multiple prices — one for the Centre, one for state governments and one for private hospitals? There should be one uniform price for all segments of vaccines,” Congress leader Jairam Ramesh said today.

Former finance minister P Chidambaram, meanwhile, said though the policy required vaccine makers to make an advance declaration of self-certified price for vaccines before May 1, it is unclear how that price would be determined.

“There are only two domestic vaccine manufacturers. Will they collude to determine the price? In what transparent formula will the pricing be fixed? This would be anti-competitive and would open doors for unhealthy bidding,” Chidambaram said.

The former FM also demanded that the Centre address vaccine needs of every state individually considering the vaccine procurement would exert additional pressures on already cash strapped states.

“Under the modified vaccine policy, the states will bear the responsibility and cost of vaccinating the poorer sections who are below the age of 45 years and are neither Health Care workers nor Frontline workers, as defined by the central government. The central government appears to have abdicated its responsibility towards the poor by excluding them from the central government’s vaccination programme. In a country where the median age is 28 years, to leave those who are below the age of 45 years out of a public-funded programme is, to say the least, callous. The migrant workers who live and work in other states and are the lifeblood of the economy of our cities will be the worst affected by this directive,” said Chidambaram.

He added that by liberalising the pricing of vaccine, and by not fixing a price for states at the same rate as it is available to the Union Government, the government is paving the way to unhealthy price bidding and profiteering.

“States with limited resources will be at a considerable disadvantage. States that are already weighed down by shrinking GST revenues, lower tax devolution, reduced grants-in-aid and increased borrowing would have to bear this additional burden. Meanwhile, nobody knows where the thousands of crores of rupees collected under PM-CARES are being deployed,” the Congress veteran noted calling the news policy regressive and inequitable.

The Congress also asked whether any foreign vaccine manufacturer had agreed to export to India.