Human spaceflight stuck due to unrealistic budgeting: CAG

India's plans to send a human into outer space could not take off as budgeted funds remained unutilised due the failure of Department of Space to secure necessary approvals for the ambitious project.

The Comptroller and Auditor General, in its report tabled in Parliament today, also pointed out "unrealistic budgeting" by the Department of Space (DoS) as one of the reasons for the human spaceflight programme failing to get off ground.

"Due to unrealistic budgeting in the Department, a programme viz. "Manned Mission Initiatives/Human Space Flight Programme" could not take off as the major portion of the budget allocation remained unutilised due to non-approval of the scheme," it said.

The CAG also said that the DoS had obtained budget provisions of Rs 20 crore and Rs 210 crore for the programme which was not approved by the competent authority in 2009-10.

"Against this, an expenditure of Rs 19.02 crore and Rs 5.98 crore had been incurred on the Revenue and Capital sections of the programme respectively," the government auditor said.

The DoS surrendered only Rs 200 crore out of the unspent provision of Rs 204.02 crore from Capital section, it said.

Similarly, budget provision of Rs 100 crore and Rs 50 crore was also obtained during 2010-11 and the DoS spent Rs 12.90 crore and Rs 6.37 crore respectively on Revenue and Capital sections, the CAG pointed out.

"Thus, the Department persistently obtained grants of Rs 230 crore and Rs 150 crore against which it expenditure of Rs 25 crore and Rs 19.27 crore was incurred on an unapproved programme during 2009-10 and 2010-11," the CAG said.

The CAG wondered why the DoS had incurred expenditure of nearly Rs 45 crore when the scheme was not taken up due to its non-approval.