Tech
New Licensing Regime For Import Of Laptops, Tablets, PCs To Be Implemented From Nov 1: Directorate General of Foreign Trade
Acer laptop (Pic Via Acer Website)
The Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT) announced late on Friday night that the new licensing regime for the import of some categories of laptops, tablets and personal computers till come in to effect beginning November 1, 2023.
DGFT in its notification stated, "Import consignments can be cleared till October 31, 2023, without a licence for restricted imports."
The notification further said that liberal transitional arrangements will be notified for the import of laptops, tablets, all-in-one personal computers, and servers till October 31.
The DGFT, however, made it clear that a valid licence for restricted imports will be required "with effect from November 1".
Allaying fears of firms that an abrupt policy change will result in supply chain disruptions, Rajeev Chandrasekhar, the Union Minister of State for Electronics and IT, clarified that a transition period would be in place before the rollout of the new norms.
On Thursday (Aug 3), the commerce ministry announced that hardware manufacturers will now require a valid licence and would have to pay duty to import PCs, laptops, tablets, servers etc.
The Commerce Ministry notification said that exemption will be provided on the import licence only for up to 20 of such items per consignment for the purpose of research and development, testing, benchmarking and evaluation, repair and re-export and for product development.
The government's recent decision to restrict imports is seen as a bid to boost the domestic production and assembly of electronic goods. Electronic imports, including laptops, tablets, and personal computers, accounted for $19.7 billion between April and June 2023, expanding at a rate of roughly 6% each year.
The Union Government has already notified a Production-linked Incentive(PLl) Scheme 2.0 for IT Hardware was notified on May 29 with a budgetary outlay of Rs 17,000 crore. The government has also extended the window for receiving applications under the PLI scheme 2.0 for IT Hardware till August 30.
The incentive scheme is key to India's ambitions to become a powerhouse in the global electronics supply chain, with the country targeting annual production worth $300 billion by 2026.
Dell, Acer, Samsung, LG Electronics, Apple Inc, Lenovo and HP Inc are some of the key companies selling laptops in the Indian market and a substantial portion are imported from countries such as China.
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