Govt Asks Distilleries/Sugar Mills to Maximize Manufacture of Hand Sanitizers amid Coronavirus Outbreak in India

Amid India’s fight against Covid-19 and nationwide lockdown, central and State Governments are taking all steps to ensure the supply of essential items during the lockdown to combat the novel Coronavirus. In order to prevent spread of coronavirus, hand sanitizers are being used by public, health workers, hospitals etc. The demand of sanitizers is increasing day by day and in order to maintain demand and supply balance, State Government authorities including Excise Commissioners, Cane Commissioners, Drug Controllers as well as District Collectors of various states have been advised to remove any bottlenecks in the supply of ethanol/ENA to manufacturers of hand sanitizers and to give permissions /licenses to the applicants including distilleries who intend to manufacture hand sanitizers. 

Distilleries/ Sugar mills which can produce hand sanitizers in bulk have also been motivated to manufacture hand sanitizers. These manufacturers have also been asked to work in three shifts to maximize their output.

As per reports, about 45 distilleries and 564 other manufacturers have been granted permission to produce hand sanitizers; more than 55 distilleries are likely to be given permission in one or two days, and many more are being motivated to produce sanitizers in this scenario. Most of them have commenced production and others are likely to commence production in a week’s time; thus there will be sufficient supply of hand sanitizers for the consumers and hospitals.

 In order to ensure that hand sanitizers are made available to the general public and hospitals at a reasonable price, the Government has also fixed the Maximum Retail Price of sanitizers. The retail prices of hand sanitizers shall not be more than Rs. 100 per bottle of 200ml; the prices of other quantities of hand sanitizers shall be fixed in the proportion of these prices.