budget 2023, budget box: will India’s growing step in space get strength, know what are the expectations – budget 2023: what space sector expectation from budget

New Delhi (Sagar Kulkarni): Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman will present the budget on 1 February. People have a lot of expectations from this budget of the Finance Minister. Expectations from common to special people are attached to this budget of Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman. Where the employed want exemption in income tax in this budget. People want relief from inflation. At the same time, the space sector also has high hopes from this budget.

India’s private space sector has sought tax incentives and production promotion plans in the upcoming Union Budget to encourage local manufacturing, research and development. In the Union Budget for 2023-24, we want to request for Space-based Production Linked Incentive (PLI) scheme for space technology startups, to encourage local manufacturing, said Awais Ahmed, CEO of Pixel, a Bengaluru-based startup in the space sector. This can help in promoting and encouraging capacity building within the country.

Pixel last year launched a commercial satellite ‘Shakuntala’ using SpaceX’s Falcon-9 rocket, becoming the first Indian company to do so. After this, he launched another similar satellite ‘Anand’ through the PSLV rocket of the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO). It plans to soon form a constellation of Earth observation satellites. Kranti Chand, head of strategy and special projects, DhruvaSpace, said, “In the Union Budget 2023-24, we request for the release of Rs 100 crore as Viability Gap Funding (VGF) for setting up new infrastructure. ”

Hyderabad-based startup Dhruvaspace also launched two satellites on the PSLV rocket in November and plans to set up a satellite-manufacturing unit. Chand desired that the government make a dedicated allocation of Rs 1,000 crore for the Defense Space Agency (DSA) to procure new technology from industry. He informed that for many satellite and space technology projects, the Ministry of Defense has given Acceptance of Need (AoN).

Indian Space Association (ISPA) Director General Lt Gen AK Bhatt (Retd) said that suggestions have been received from the space industry regarding tax policies and promotion of investment, research and development and employment in the space sector. ISPA said that a PLI scheme for the space sector would boost R&D in the country and provide incentives to entities involved in the sector. ISPA also wants the government to provide financial support to space sector companies and organizations through loans, grants and tax incentives.

Bhatt said that the new space policy is in its final stages of development, so the provision of tax exemption for startups should be retained till the existing policy is issued or implemented. According to a report released by ISPA last year, India’s space economy was $9.6 billion in 2020 and is expected to reach $12.8 billion by 2025.