New Delhi: The Supreme Court has questioned the Union government’s logic that manufacturers are selling it Covid-19 vaccines for a hefty discount because it places bulk orders.
The apex court wanted to know as to why the government cannot buy 100 per cent of the vaccines at a discount instead of leaving the States to fend for themselves.
A bench of Justices D Y Chandrachud, L N Rao and S R Bhat said since the Centre has pre-negotiated price and quantity with vaccine manufacturers Serum Institute and Bharat Biotech, it “casts serious doubts on the Centre’s justification for enabling higher prices as a competitive measure.”
The bench added: “Furthermore, the Central government justifying its lower prices on account of its ability to place large purchase orders for vaccines raises the issue as to why this rationale is not being employed for acquiring 100% of the monthly Central Drugs Laboratory (CDL) doses.”
Expressing concern over the additional financial burden on States because of higher priced vaccines, the bench said, “Even if states/UTs were to fund the higher-priced vaccines, a burden they were not discharging before the liberalised vaccination policy was introduced and potentially may not have planned in advance for, these funds are expended at the behest of the public exchequer.”
Solicitor General Tushar Mehta had said, “The Centre, by nature of its large vaccination programme, places large purchase orders for vaccines as opposed to state governments and/or private hospitals and, therefore, this reality has some reflection in the prices negotiated.”