‘PM CARES has paid only for three-fourths of ventilators ordered in April 2020’

More than a yr after the PM CARES fund introduced it might purchase and distribute 50,000 ventilators for ₹2,000 crore, only ₹1,532 crore has been launched, based on a Health Ministry response to a Right to Information request filed by Commodore Lokesh Batra (Retd). The remaining cash is awaiting clearance from the fund, stated an official.

A senior Health Ministry official says 16,000 ventilators — virtually all from non-public producers — haven’t but been put in even after the second wave of the pandemic. The Ministry plans a gathering with distributors and the State governments inside every week to hurry up the set up course of, stated the official.

Cost mismatch

There can be a mismatch between the associated fee of these 50,000 ventilators which is ₹2,147 crore as per the RTI, and the ₹2,000 crore quantity that PM CARES has allotted. The official stated the invoice for ₹2,147 crore has been despatched to the PMO, however the fee is pending. The PMO officers administer the PM CARES Fund “on an honorary basis”, although the federal government says the fund itself is non-public.

As the RTI response states, the Ministry put in a purchase order order on April 3, 2020 for 58,850 ventilators at a price of ₹2,332.22 crore. Of these, 30,000 ventilators would come from state-run defence producer Bharat Electronics Ltd (BEL) and the remaining from varied non-public gamers through the Ministry’s procurement company Hindustan Lifecare Ltd (HLL).

Subsequently, on May 13, 2020, the PM CARES Fund introduced that it might pay for 50,000 ventilators at a value of ₹2,000 crore. The response to the RTI reveals that this included all of the BEL ventilators and 20,000 being procured by the HLL.

The RTI response reveals that BEL has now been paid ₹1,497.34 crore out of its order worth of ₹1,513.92 crore. A senior official stated the PSU producer has delivered and put in 29,750 of its 30,000 ventilators.

However, it’s a completely different story amongst non-public gamers. Only 42,000 ventilators (of the preliminary order of 58,850) have been put in, based on the Ministry official, which means that greater than 16,000 ventilators ordered from non-public producers through HLL have but to be put in.

Tardy supply

PM CARES has only launched ₹35.36 crore to HLL, based on the RTI. “The amount for 20,000 ventilators procured through HLL comes to ₹633.28 crore. And the bill for the same has been given to the PMO. However, no payment has been released so far except the advance ₹35.36 crore. The file is under process in PMO,” stated the official, indicating this can be as a result of of the tardy supply of privately manufactured machines.

“Within one week’s time, all the ventilators will be allocated and there is going to be a meeting with all the companies and the States about installing them immediately. Some ventilators have not been installed because there is no provision in the facility,” stated the official.