Row over cost of testing kits: Insult to every Indian says Rahul Gandhi

New Delhi: Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, who has been stressing repeatedly on increased testing in the fight against coronavirus, on Monday attacked those trying to earn huge profits from the sale of rapid testing kits and tweeted an appeal to Prime Minister Narendra Modi to act against them.

The Congress MP was reacting to reports about India paying double for Chinese Rapid Antibody Tests that have been put on hold in many states because of faulty results.

"When the entire country is fighting against the COVID-19 pandemic, some people are still trying to earn profits using unscrupulous ways. Such a corrupt mindset makes me cringe. The country will never pardon them," Rahul Gandhi tweeted in Hindi.

In another tweet, he wrote: "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 PM to act swiftly to bring the corrupt to justice. (sic)". Nearly 27,000 people in the country have tested positive for COVID-19 so far; more than 800 have died.

The government bought the Chinese coronavirus test kits at an inflated price from an Indian distributor, Real Metabolics, a legal dispute between the distributor and the importer that went to the Delhi High Court has revealed.

Six lakh and fifty thousand kits, including Rapid Antibody Tests and RNA Extraction Kits were dispatched to India, Ambassador to China Vikram Misri had tweeted on April 16.

The test kits were bought by the importer, Matrix, for Rs 245 apiece from China. Yet, the distributors, Real Metabolics and Aark Pharmaceuticals, sold the same kits to the government for Rs 600 each. The court, while hearing the dispute, found that the mark-up was "on the higher side" and directed that the price of the kits be reduced to Rs 400 per kit.

Congress leader Udit Raj had shared on Twitter a message circulating on social media that "17 companies were ready to sell the coronavirus test kits for Rs 500 but Prime Minister Narendra Modi got a Gujarat-based company the contract for selling kits for Rs 4,500". ICMR replied to the Congress leader on the social networking site that the price range for the testing kits lies between Rs 528-1150.

"This is Fake News. The price range approved by ICMR is Rs740-1150 for RT-PCR and Rs528-795 for Rapid Test. No test has been procured at Rs4500. Any Indian company wanting to supply at lower rates is welcome to contact ICMR," it tweeted.