The recent decision by the Indian government to restrict imports of personal computers, laptops, and tablets on the verge of promoting local manufacturing, does not imply immediate effect. As the government has announced the timeline till November 1st, 2023 to implement this norm, allotting a transition period to incorporate the new norm to be effective, clarified Rajeev Chandrashekhar, State Minister for Information Technology & Electronics.
Restrictions on Laptops/PCs/Tabs under HSN8471 to start from November 1st, 2023. Till then, all imports are to be cleared without Licences to Import. The declaration has been released by Director General of Foreign Trade Santosh Kumar Sarangi, on behalf of the Ministry of Commerce and Industry Department of Commerce Directorate General of Foreign Trade, Vanijya Bhavan.
The traders are allotted time till the 1st of November to clear all the trade assignments and engage in license persuasion in less than three months now. As per the notification, the levied ban “shall be effective from 1st November 2023. Import assignments can be cleared till 31.10.2023 without a Lucence for Restricted Imports. For clearance of import consignments with effect from 01.11.2023, a valid License for Restricted Imports is required.”
The transition period was anticipated to be at least four months, however, considering the shipments have already been ordered and are in transit. "There will be a transition period for this to be put into effect which will be notified soon," Mr Chandrashekhar tweeted.
The clarification was released a day after the government announced the curb, stating that the ban will not be incorporated with immediate effect.
Indian Government Bans Imports of Laptops
On Thursday, the Indian government imposed the requirement of a license to import laptops, personal computers, and tablets in order to bolster domestic manufacturing of the said products covering the PLI scheme (production-linked incentive) for IT hardware.
The move will limit the import of these goods from countries such as China and Korea, wrote news agency PTI.
To address the confusion behind the sudden curb taken after putting the ban on imports of laptops and other electronic devices on being asked the reason by a user, central minister Mr Chandrashekhar tweeted, “India is becomng one of worlds fastest growing markets for Digital products includng Laptops, Servers, etc. India and DigitalNagriks will consume millions of Digital products in coming Techade. Rapid digitilization / cloudification of our economy AND rapid growth of our digital economy is fueling demand growth. It is govts objective to ensure trusted hardware n systems, reduce import dependance and increase domestic mfg of this category of products. This is not at all abt license raj - It is about regulating imports to ensure trusted and verifiable systems AND ensuring India tech eco-system uses trusted n verified systems only that are imported and/or domestically manufactured trusted systems / products.”
He further threw light upon the issue in a question-and-answer format to elaborate on the issue in detail, “Q: Why has the @GoI_MeitY finalized new norms for import of IT hardware like Laptops, Servers etc? Ans: There will be a transition period for this to be put into effect which will be notified soon.”
The Result
The mandate poses further challenges for manufacturers who are already facing a surplus of inventory worldwide and struggling to revive sales growth. This could potentially lead to postponed product launches in India or even shortages in a market that heavily relies on overseas shipments.
To Conclude
The sudden restriction imposed on laptop imports definitely encourages indigenous and hi-tech manufacturing industrial development in India, increasing employment opportunities and bringing competent products at reasonable prices to buyers yet discourages foreign imports, promoting India as a global competitor for electronic manufacturing.
