The Union health ministry on Tuesday issued an order specifying the maximum price private hospitals can charge for each dose of the three Covid-19 vaccines approved in India so far, Live Law reported.
Private hospitals can charge a maximum of Rs 780 per dose for Covishield shots, Rs 1,410 for Covaxin and Rs 1,145 for Sputnik-V jabs. The prices include the cost at which the private hospitals procure the doses from manufacturers, the 5% Goods and Services Tax applicable on them and service charges.
The order came a day after Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced that private hospitals would be allowed to levy a maximum of Rs 150 as service charges for administering the shots. Modi announced the decision in an address to the nation where he also said that the Centre will take over the procurement of vaccines for those aged 18-45, from state governments.
Under the new policy, the Centre will procure 75% of all the jabs manufactured by vaccine makers for all adults and provide them to states on the basis of population and number of cases. Private hospitals will procure the remaining 25% of the vaccines.
In April, Serum Institute of India had announced that its Covishield vaccine will be priced at Rs 600 per dose for private hospitals. Meanwhile, Bharat Biotech had set the price of Covaxin at Rs 1,200 per dose and Dr Reddy’s Laboratories had priced Sputnik-V at Rs 948.
In its order on Tuesday, the health ministry mentioned that CoWIN, the platform for registering for Covid-19 shots will put in place “required validations” to ensure that price of vaccines at private centres do ot exceed the specified cost.
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