Medical oxygen export less than 0.4% of total production, says Govt slamming fake reports

New Delhi: The Central government on Wednesday issued a clarification on media reports claiming that India exported nearly 9,300 metric tonnes of oxygen in the fiscal year 2020-21 despite reeling under the COVID-19 pandemic. Terming the claims as part of a ‘malicious propaganda’ government sources stated that the reports have mistaken industrial oxygen as medical oxygen.

“Malicious propaganda is being spread that India had exported scarce medical oxygen during the pandemic year of 2020-21. This is absolutely false and industrial oxygen exports are being mistaken as medical oxygen. There are 2 categories of exports of liquid oxygen, Medical and others (industrial),” ANI quoted government sources as saying.”

It further clarified that during the fiscal year 2021, India exported 9,884 MT of Industrial Oxygen while only 12 MT of Medical Oxygen was shipped abroad. This annual export is less than 0.4% of the total annual production capacity in India, sources added.

“Majority of this industrial oxygen was exported in December and January when medical oxygen consumption reduced to 1,418 MT/day from 2,675 MT/day in September, against the 7000 MT/day capacity. This resulted in no threat to medical oxygen supply while protecting jobs in the oxygen industry,” the government officials said.”

For the past couple of days, various reports have surfaced in the media claiming that India exported twice as much oxygen to the world during the first ten months of fiscal 2020-21 as compared to the entire financial year before it.