Hyderabad: Suppliers double oxygen refilling charges

Hyderabad: With Hyderabad police taking up an aggressive approach and booking several cases against illegal activities in supply of oxygen cylinders, the traders across the city have stopped supply of oxygen cylinders. This impacted a section of people especially those who have home quarantined themselves.

A large number of patients are using oxygen at home on the advice of doctors which has raised the demand and price. According to the suppliers the prime reason for the rise in prices of cylinders was because of many people buying and stocking up cylinders out of sheer anxiety. The surgical stores and medical retailers are selling the cylinders at exorbitant rates anywhere between Rs 14,000 and Rs 30,000. This raised suspicion amidst authorities and they banned selling of cylinders, henceforth.

Now that the sales have stopped, the suppliers in order to earn windfall profits have resorted to increasing refilling rates on each cylinder. The suppliers are charging double for refilling oxygen, which was done for Rs 300 to Rs 700 before the pandemic.

Mohd Omer Shareef, a supplier from Auto Nagar, says he still gets calls from various buyers willing to pay any amount for one cylinder but he says no to such deals. Further, he says, "The buyers out of sheer panic and anxiety are indulging in nefarious ways to coerce the medical retailers and suppliers to sell oxygen cylinders illegally. Encouraged by the prevailing demand and situation, many sellers are taking advantage and are asking exorbitant rates for cylinders which they have stocked up already. This has inevitably created a shortage of O2 cylinders affecting patients in emergency. Now that the sales have been banned we have to increase the refilling rates to compensate for our loss. Hence, the additional expenditure is being passed on to the customer," he added.

Mohd Karim, another supplier from Mehdipatnam, shares, "Earlier for a 30 litre O2 cylinder the charges were around Rs 300 and for 47 litres it was around Rs 500. But now the same has almost doubled and the prices are increasing day by day."