VAIBHAV PARWAT
Aurangabad, June 11:
While there are differences between the minister of health and the additional secretary of the department of health over the use of masks, the mask manufacturers are now confused whether to increase the production of masks or continue with the existing production. The mask companies in the city last year supplied masks to 68 countries. Now the demand has dropped by 90 per cent.
Recently, the health minister Dr Rajesh Tope made an appeal to use masks due to growing numbers of corona patients. Meanwhile, the additional chief secretary Dr Pradeep Vyas said that the masks are mandatory. This created confusion among the people and mask manufacturers. They are in a dilemma to keep the production as it is or scale up the production. There were 20 mask manufacturers in the city, but only eight remained after the second wave.
Last year, five lakh masks were manufactured daily from these companies. But, due to the declining number of corona patients, they dropped their production to 90 per cent and are producing only 30,000 masks every week for the last seven months. The masks were being exported to the USA, London, Spain, Dubai and several other countries. Now the demand from these countries is very low.
Government should clarify
Nearly 50 per cent of companies making masks had ceased operations last year, shortly after the second covid wave started to ease. Now, only eight manufacturers are manufacturing N-95 and 3-ply masks. The government should clarify whether the masks are compulsory or not. This will clear the picture for the manufacturers, said Harshal Jain, member of the mask manufacturing association of India.
Pressure on manufacturers
There is a 30 per cent increase in prices of raw material, due to the ongoing Ukraine-Russia war. Sales though have come to zilch. This rise in material costs and low sales have put pressure on mask pricing, which cannot be increased despite the rise in production costs, said Sudarshan Pande, director, New Life India Pvt.