Despite a Maharashtra Food and Drug Administration (FDA) circular directing all hospital blood banks in the state to mention MRP and other relevant information on the blood bags, none of the public hospital blood banks have however been able to implement it since 1992 when the circular was issued as most of them are either unaware of issuance of circular or have not received it.
 
According to sources, most of the blood banks in other states have also not been following the practice of printing the government stipulated price on the blood bag as the price is specified on the receipt inclusive of the tests done like NAT or ELISA after the blood is sold to the patient.

A government resolution in June 2014 had set Rs.1,450 as the price for one unit of whole blood consisting of 450 ml, Rs.400 for fresh frozen plasma, Rs.400 for one unit of platelets and Rs.250 for cryoprecipitate.

The FDA circular issued was meant to guide patients on the MRP and other relevant details of the blood. The state licensing authority last year had also registered cases of overcharging of blood beyond the government stipulated price and issued show cause notices to 19 Mumbai based blood banks for overcharging.

A representation from the Federation of Bombay Blood Banks (FBBB) to the Maharashtra FDA had, however, clarified that increase in the cost of one unit of blood is due to the inclusion of specialised test charges recommended by National Blood Transfusion Council (NBTC).

The Maharashtra FDA probe found that majority of them were charging prices higher than the rates fixed by the NBTC. In November 2014, the FDA officials inspected 309 blood banks across the state, of which 72 were found to have discrepancies in charging process. Out of the 72 blood banks, 19 were from Mumbai alone.

The state regulator had also suspended the licenses of 7 blood banks and canceled one based on 369 inspections done during 2013-14 across Maharashtra. The state today has 303 blood banks and 3 cord blood banks.

Suspensions and cancellations were made for violation of the provisions of Drugs & Cosmetics (D&C) Act as the blood banks had failed to operate efficiently due to lack of monitoring by technically qualified staff.

D&C Act also stipulates that the blood bank shall provide adequate arrangements for storage of whole human blood, human blood components and blood products. The blood bank shall furnish to the licensing authority, if required to do so, data on the stability of whole human blood, its components or blood products which are likely to deteriorate, for fixing the date of expiry which shall be printed on the labels of such products on the basis of the data so furnished.