Centre imposes restrictions on import of laptops, tablets, PCs | Fusion - WeRIndia

In a significant move, the Central government of India has implemented restrictions on the importation of servers, laptops, tablets, and personal computers.

The Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT) released a statement yesterday. It announced that imports of these commodities will be allowed with a license. However, some specific use cases have been exempted from the restrictions.

Under the new restrictions, certain activities like mailing, courier usage, and individual online purchases of laptops, tablets, desktops, or ultra-compact computers for shipment abroad will be prohibited.

However, imports under baggage rules and other exempted use cases will not be subjected to these restrictions.

Around 20 of these items have been granted exemption from an import license per consignment for specific purposes.

These include research and development, testing, benchmarking and evaluation, repair and re-export, and product development.

Nevertheless, the condition is that the imported goods must strictly serve the stated purposes and cannot be sold.

Furthermore, after fulfilling their intended purpose, the products must either be rendered useless beyond any further usage or re-exported. However, it’s important to note that imports of these electronic goods are allowed when they are deemed an “essential” part of a capital good.

This move comes as part of India’s initiative to boost domestic production and encourage businesses to manufacture locally.

By implementing such measures, the government aims to attract more smartphone makers, chip manufacturers, and semiconductor producers to invest in India and contribute to its growing electronics industry.

In recent times, India has witnessed an increase in electronics imports, including laptops, tablets, and personal computers, with a growth rate of 6.25 per cent compared to last year.

India’s objective is evident, that is, to reduce reliance on imports and boost domestic production of electronic items.

The implementation of these import restrictions appears to be a step towards achieving this goal and encouraging local manufacturing in the electronics sector.

Image from Pxhere (Free for commercial use / CC0 Public Domain)

Image Reference: https://pxhere.com/en/photo/764652