Biotechnology start-ups get a boost with tax waiver on services from incubators

At present there are 10 approved incubators which support close to 300 start-ups

Government aims to encourage biotechnology research by waiving service tax levied on start-ups. The tax waiver is also in line with the government's plans to nurture about 2,000 biotechnology start-ups by 2020.

In the Union Budget, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley announced exemption on service tax on services provided by Biotechnology Industry Research Assistance Council (Birac) approved incubators to start-ups from April.

At present there are 15 approved incubators which support close to 300 start-ups. Birac is a public sector enterprise under the department of biotechnology which supports innovation in the sector.

"Start-ups pay service tax on services provided by incubators. This is counterproductive and makes research cost expensive. A few years ago government had given tax concession for technology start-ups and so a demand was made for service tax waiver for biotechnology start-ups. The budget announcement is a step in right direction," said Taslimarif Saiyed, director of Centre for Cellular and Molecular Platforms.

Birac Managing Director Renu Swaroop said the tax exemption will help in promoting start-up led innovation and research. In the Startup Action Plan announced last month, the government plans to nurture 300-500 biotechnology start-ups each year and to have 2,000 start-ups by 2020. Other plans which were announced in the policy include setting up of five new bio-clusters, 50 new bio-incubators, 150 technology transfer offices and 20 bio-connect offices in research institutes and Universities.