mid-day investigation: Commercial industry selling oxygen to hospitals at thrice the market rate

Oxygen be it for hospitals or citizens getting treatment at home is getting costlier with every passing day On the one hand while the cost of refilling oxygen cylinders has increased manifold the cost of oxygen concentrators used at home has also surged by 2550 per cent During an onground investigation on Tuesday midday found that even as the pandemic rages the shortage has driven the prices to threefive times the previous costOxygen cylinders at Shree Siddhi Indian Gases and Equipment at Reay RoadOn Tuesday midday visited Kolsa Bunder and Daru Khana areas in Reay Road which houses many scrap units Maximum number of industries located there use oxygen for their work With supply of oxygen for industrial purposes stopped by the government 90 per cent of the suppliers have shut shop However those who are managing to procure some stock are selling it at a premium because of what they say is the high cost of procurementShree Siddhi Indian Gases and Equipment private limited company at Ghas Bunder Daru Khana deals in gases like oxygen nitrogen hydrogen helium and medical oxygen midday posed as a customer in need of oxygen and videorecorded the conversations with the various sellersYasin an employee at Shree Siddhi Indian Gases and Equipment said ldquoWe have limited cylinders available We are supplying it to hospitals and COVID patients The rate of an empty 10litre capacity cylinder is Rs 10000 Refilling it would cost Rs 1600rdquo The rate of refilling per cylinder was Rs 300 earlier Yasin added ldquoThe rate charged by the supplier itself is costly Commercial use of oxygen has completely stoppedrdquoThe rise in prices comes even as the government has routed all industrial oxygen to hospitalsShahnawaz Shaikh who sold his SUV during last yearrsquos lockdown to provide oxygen to needy COVID19 patients through his Unity and Dignity Foundation said ldquoEarlier an oxygen cylinder of five litres would cost Rs 3000Rs 4000 but now it costs Rs 6000Rs 7000 While a 10litre cylinder costs three times more than earlier Previously it would cost Rs 5000Rs 6000 but now it costs Rs 18000Rs 20000 rupees This rise in cost is shockingrdquoRaza Ahmad Qureshi 77 a Malwani resident who has been suffering from asthma for a decade has been worried about the shortage too Qureshirsquos son Gohar an interior designer used to get cylinders from a local NGO but since his father needed it continuously the arrangement wasnrsquot sustainable Gohar said ldquoFor the past twothree years my father has been needing oxygen on a daily basis I rented an oxygen concentrator for Rs 15000 per month I paid a Rs 10000 deposit Every 24 hours I have to stop the machine to let it cool During that one hour however if my father needs oxygen I had no backup So I have also one oxygen cylinderrdquoConcentratorsrsquo costs risemidday spoke to Sai Surgical at Juinagar which provides oxygen concentrators regarding their price A representative for the company Vinod Deshmukh said ldquoWe are currently running short of machines A normal machine having a capacity to produce 5 litres of oxygen used to cost Rs 35000 Now it costs Rs 55000 plus GST A booking two days in advance is required for the samerdquomidday also found that pharmacies and surgical equipment suppliers have increased the rent for the machines ldquoEarlier we used to provide the machines at Rs 10000 deposit and Rs 3000 to Rs 4000 monthly rent But now the deposits have doubled to Rs 20000 and rent has reached Rs 10000 at some placesrdquo said a supplier from Mulund ldquoGetting machines has become extremely difficult If anyone makes it available it will be expensiverdquoRs 10KCost of one 10litre capacity cylinder at a Reay Road supplierRs 1600Cost of refilling a 10litre capacity cylinderRs 300Earlier cost of refilling a cylinderRs 4000Earlier approx rent of an oxygen concentratorRs 10000Current approx rent of an oxygen concentrator