Centre caps max amount pvt hosps can charge for Covishield, Covaxin and Sputnik shots

The Centre on Tuesday said private vaccination centers cannot charge more than Rs 780 for Covishield, Rs 1,410 for Covaxin and Rs 1,145 for Sputnik V jabs and up to Rs 150 on service charges.

It instructed the state governments to monitor the prices being charged by the private hospitals and added that strict action will be taken against the vaccination centres charging more .

The process to ensure that the prices charged by the private vaccination centres do not cross that mandated by the government are being taken by making necessary changes in the COWIN portal.

"The Co-WIN system will also reset the prices declared by private CVCs to the maximum value indicated, for respective vaccines, wherever the price declared by a CVC exceeds the maximum value," the order said.

According to government directive, private hospitals cannot charge more than Rs 780 for Covishield. Serum Institute of India, the maker of the vaccine in India, is selling each dose at Rs 600 to private centres while the GST on each dose is Rs 30 and the private centres are allowed to charge up to Rs 150 as service charge. Hence, a beneficiary will not pay more than Rs 780 for a dose.

For Sputnik vaccine, with a GST of Rs 47.40~Rs47 and a service charge of Rs 150, a beneficiary will be charged Rs1,145.

Covaxin, manufactured by Bharat Biotech, costs Rs 1,200 per dose and with GST Rs 70 and service charge of Rs 150 levied by private centers, it will cost the beneficiary Rs 1,410.