Medical devices industry red notice against AP PSU

Chennai, Nov 13: A war of words on Twitter is on between the Association of Indian Medical Devices Industry (AIMED) and the Andhra Pradesh government over pending dues to medical equipment makers. On Friday, the AIMED tweeted a red notice cautioning its members not to bid or supply to Andhra Pradesh Medical Services & Infrastructure Development Corporation (APMSIDC) directly or through their distributors without getting 100 per cent advance.

According to the AIMED, many of its members who had supplied to APMSIDC four-five years back are yet to receive payments. "Any sales done are at your own financial risk after this Red Listing," AIMED which has over 400 medical devices makers as its members declared. "We have nothing against the Andhra Pradesh government. We are thankful for Andhra Pradesh government's support to the Make-in-India programme. Only the APMSIDC is delaying the payments to our members," Rajiv Nath, Forum Coordinator, AIMED, told IANS.

Responding to the red notice, Fact Check AP, an initiative of AP Digital Corporation, on Saturday tweeted: "This red notice has been portrayed as, an indicator that the Government Exchequer is not clearing the bills for 4-5 years, and this has triggered a certain section of social media to further press on their political and malicious intent. "The government has procured around 2000 crore of equipment and has paid in time. Only Rs 328 crore payment is due from last two months. Regarding the procurements and payments done in past years, it will be further investigated and action shall be taken.

"The Red notice published by the informal group of Association of Indian Medical Device Industry (AIMED) has certainly malicious intent behind it. "The Notice is under investigation and the government will take action against the involved persons/ associations/ groups in case of any malicious intent is found behind this propaganda."

Responding to Fact Check AP's statement, AIMED tweeted: "Your claim that only payments of last 2 months are outstanding are questionable see details below as sample - there are other aggrieved suppliers - the MD APMIDC did not reply to our letters and repeated requests for settlement - pls investigate and help patients n mfrs."

According to Nath, he had written a letter to D. Muralidhar Reddy, Managing Director, APMSIDC on September 17 warning about AIMED's decision to issue a Red Notice against the state government undertaking. In that letter, Nath had requested Reddy to clear the dues of the medical device makers and a timeline by which the outstanding dues would be cleared.

Even on November 11, a reminder was sent to Reddy by Nath wherein the latter had stated: "Your kind intervention is required with APMSIDC to clear the outstanding payments of at least those companies whose payment/bill details have been uploaded on CFMS portal. "We also request for an appointment for our Member Company M/s Paramount Surgimed (and others) as per your convenient date and time to enable them to discuss the long outstanding payment matter in detail."

According to Nath, as per their records Rs39 crore is owed by APMSIDC to AIMED members. "There are other members who have not told us about the dues. Further any payment due is a burden on the small medical devices manufacturers," Nath added.