BJP leader and advocate Ajay Agrawal has asked the Supreme Court to order a refund of over and above Rs 400 charged by States and private laboratories for conducting RT-PCR test, whose cost comes to around Rs 200 only.
In an application, he pointed out the Odisha government has already fixed the price of this test to Rs 400, after adding 100% profit, since the actual cost incurred by the private labs and hospitals was not more than Rs 200, which has vindicated his stand.
He said, "the people of the country are shocked and feeling befooled and cheated not only by these private labs and hospitals but by the political executives and officials of this country."
They were either totally insensitive towards the 135 crores population by not inquiring or investigating why this test is so expensively charged and how much were the actual expenses incurred on this test or they have done it deliberately in connivance with the private labs and hospitals, he claimed.
Agrawal said the cost of the kit and other things used in the RT-PCR (real-time reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction) test, for Covid-19, has gone down in the month of April-May itself.
He asked the court to order for fixing a uniform maximum rate of Rs 400 for the RT-PCR test across the country on the principle of parity and one nation-one rate policy.
The court has already on November 24 admitted his PIL for consideration and sought a response from the Union government.
By his application, he said responsibility should be fixed of the concerned officials or persons in all the States, Delhi government and Union Territories for "remaining insensitive deliberately or negligently to the cause of 135 crores people".
He claimed after the top court sought the Union government's reply to his petition, several states Delhi, Gujarat, Rajasthan and Bihar brought down the test price to Rs 800, Uttar Pradesh to Rs 700 and Odisha to Rs 400. Earlier, States fixed the price in range of Rs 3,200 to Rs 900.