Delhi High Court fixes coronavirus rapid test kit price at Rs 400

The Delhi High Court has capped the maximum price of each coronavirus rapid test kit imported by Matrix Labs at Rs 400. The price cap includes GST.

The court was hearing a plea by Rare Metabolics Life Sciences to seek release of 7.24 lakh COVID-19 rapid test kits and other related material being imported by the respondent from China.

The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) had placed an order with Rare Metabolics for 5,00,000 test kits at Rs 600 each on March 27 and 28 for a total of Rs 30 crore.

Rare Metabolics routed the order through Matrix, which imported the kits at Rs 245 each, or a total of Rs 12.25 crore. It supplied the kits to Rare Metabolics for Rs 21 crore.

This implied that Rare Metabolics in turn made a profit of Rs 9 crore "despite no value addition to the imported medical material.".

To this end, the court observed that the country is going through an unprecedented medical crisis affecting public order, and that public interest must outweigh private gain.

While the firms have delivered 276,000 kits to the ICMR, the court has instructed that the remaining 224,000 kits be delivered when the consignment lands in India.