COVID-19: Hand sanitizers become 16 times costlier

New Delhi: Prices of Hand Sanitizer have risen up to 16 times the maximum retail price (MRP) for a bottle of 30 ml amid the highly contagious coronavirus outbreak across the world.

Since health experts advised people to keep their hands clean avoid touching eyes, nose, mouth all the ways the virus can probably enter our body, MRPs for hand sanitizers, face masks rose to 16 times the MRP.

India a nation of billions is at a huge risk since the outbreak is deadly and is increasing by the day.

Flipkart, Amazon

Speaking of online e-commerce sites like Flipkart, a seller by the name SuperRetails has listed a Himalaya PureHands 30 ml bottle at Rs 999, several times above the MRP.

Flipkart on its help centre says, “You could see different prices for the same product, as it could be listed by many sellers.”

Twitteratis react

Twitteratis too have complained about the high prices of hand sanitizers at a time when they could be needed the most.

“…Is this fair to sell 30 ml of hand sanitizer at 999 at the need of the hour for ppl?” a Twitter user Chaitra said.

“Companies are actually working hard to help people by selling a 30 ml Hand Sanitizer for only Rs 999 and mind that that’s with a discount of Re 1. Please do something for those who are selling products over the MRP price,” tweeted another twitter handler Himanshu Kumar.

Responding to the people’s complaint, the Himalaya Drug Company tweeted it “will take action against those who are responsible for this”.

“This is to clarify that we have not increased the rates of our PureHands Hand Sanitizers. The rates of our sanitizers have been illegally increased by unauthorised third-party sellers. We are not associated with these unscrupulous sellers in any way. These are illegal practices and must be dealt with firmly in accordance with law,” Himalaya tweeted.

The total number of infected people in India has reached 39 today after five more cases have been reported as positive from Kerala.