A health worker shows empty vials of Covishield at a vaccination centre in Jammu, December 29, 2021. Photo: PTI
New Delhi: How much has the Union health ministry spent on procurement of COVID-19 vaccines? RTI replies furnished by two agencies of the Union government with a gap of one day to Commodore Lokesh K. Batra differ quite drastically – to the tune of Rs 1,000 crore.
In a reply to his RTI query asking the Union health ministry how much money had been spent out of the Rs 35,000 crore sanctioned in last year’s budget for the COVID-19 vaccination programme, he was told: “The total amount released to M/s HLL Lifecare Ltd (procurement agency for ministry of health and family welfare) for procurement /purchase of Covid-19 vaccines is Rs 27,945.14 crore (approx.) till date.” This reply was given on January 24, 2022.
(The Union health ministry gives money to HLL Lifecare. HLL is also a Government of India enterprise. It procures vaccines from manufacturers on behalf of the government.)
A day later, HLL Lifecare Ltd sent him another RTI reply. It stated that the HLL had received Rs 26,945 crore from the Union health ministry. That reflects a difference of Rs about 1,000 crore from what the ministry had told him.
Talking to The Wire Science, Batra said he had no idea why two arms of the same government differed so much in their replies. “Where has Rs 1,000 crore gone, after all?” he asked.
The ministry reply told him that HLL Lifecare had paid Rs 27,043.89 crore to vaccine manufacturers. But the January 25 HLL reply informed Batra that the latter had paid Rs 26,936.74 – again a difference of about Rs 1,000 crore.
More discrepancies
The anomalies don’t end here. As per the January 25 reply sent by HLL, it had paid Rs 26,936.74 till that date to vaccine manufacturers, that is Serum Institute of India (SII) and Bharat Biotech.
However, HLL Lifecare sent him a revised reply on January 28. That said HLL Lifecare had actually paid three manufacturers – Besides SII (for Covishield) and Bharat Biotech (Covaxin), it had paid Biological E for Corbevax doses. The total amount that was paid to the manufacturers, according to this new reply, stood at Rs 28,445.54 crore. This was a difference of Rs 1,500 crore as compared to what the HLL had stated earlier. The HLL said the additional sum of Rs 1,500 crore was paid to Biological E.
Unlike its previous reply (given on January 25), HLL’s last reply didn’t give details on the number of doses. The previous reply had stated that 166.6 crore doses had been procured from SII and Bharat Biotech.
Of the 166.6 crore doses, Serum Institute of India has thus far inked agreements to manufacture 130.1 doses. In return, the company has received Rs 23,635.7 crore and Rs 3126.18 crore is pending.
Similarly, Bharat Biotech has contributed 36.2 crore doses, plus 30 lakh doses free of cost, according to the health ministry. This means the company has contributed 22% of the dose supply, and thus far (8:30 am on January 29, 2022) accounts for 14.04% of doses administered. In return, the government has paid Rs 3,301.04 crore while Rs 4,452.16 crore is pending.
Notably, in response to a question in the Rajya Sabha on November 30, 2021, minister of state in the finance ministry, Pankaj Chaudhary, had said that India had approached the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank for a loan of $500 million[footnote]Rs 3,750.07 crore[/footnote] for a project called “Responsive COVID-19 Vaccines for Recovery”.
Congress Rajya Sabha member K.C. Venugopal, who’d posed the question, had wanted to know if the Centre had been increasing excise duty rates on petrol and diesel to support the COVID-19 vaccination programme and, if yes, why the Centre had also sought a loan from the bank.
“The tax revenues generated from petroleum products, net of tax devolution to the states go to the Central exchequer, from which allocation is made for the expenditure requirement of the Central Government, including for COVID-19 vaccination programme,” Chaudhary had replied – but he didn’t say why the Centre had also sought a loan.
According to the Centre’s revised vaccine procurement policy, from June 2021, the government is buying 75% of the vaccine-makers’ output and supplying them to states. The state governments in turn distribute them to vaccination centres. The other 25% are available to procure by private hospitals, but thus far such hospitals have contributed only 4% to all doses administered thus far.
Under the previous policy, all individuals older than 18 years were eligible for primary vaccination – two doses of any of the approved vaccines (Covaxin, Covishield, Sputnik V). According to the government’s estimates, 94 crore people meet this eligibility criterion. And of them, 94% have taken the first dose and 74% have taken both doses, according to a Union health ministry statement at a press conference on January 27.
On November 30, 2021, minister of state in the ministry of health Bharti Pravin Pawar had said in the Rajya Sabha that the government was determined to vaccinate “all eligible 1st dose and due 2nd dose beneficiaries aged 18 years and above by December 2021” – a target the government missed. In press briefings, government officials have blamed the lack of a vaccination mandate in the country.