Amendment in Import Policy of Laptops, Tablets, Computers etc.

The move seems to be aimed at promoting domestic manufacturing, and probably targeted at China since more than 75 per cent of India’s total $ 5.33 billion imports of laptops and personal computers in 2022-23 was from the neighboring country.

Policy conditions are introduced as under:

• The Union government has restricted imports of personal computers, laptops, palmtops, automatic data processing machines, microcomputer/ processors and large/ mainframe computers with immediate effect.

• In a notification issued Thursday, the Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT) said imports of computers and other items under the seven categories of HSN Code 8471 were restricted. There will, however, be no restrictions on imports under the baggage rules.

• Government official said the measure is to push companies to manufacture locally in India, as the country looks to strengthen its domestic production prowess in the electronics sector.

• The Centre’s recently renewed production-linked incentive (PLI) scheme for IT hardware.

• The scheme was revised in May with an outlay of Rs 17,000 crore, more than doubling the budget for the scheme that was first cleared in 2021. The push is aimed at makers of laptops, servers and personal computers among others – since a majority of the imports in these segments is from China.

• Import of laptops, tablets, all-in-one personal computers, and ‘ultrasmall form factor’ computers and servers falling under HSN 8741 will be ‘restricted’ and their import would be allowed against a valid license for restricted imports, the notification said. The import of one laptop, tablet, all-in-one personal computer or ultrasmall form factor computer including those purchased from e-commerce portals through post or courier, has been exempted from licensing requirement. It will attract payment of duty as applicable, it said.

• The government has also exempted laptops, tablets, all-in-one personal computers, and ultrasmall form factor computers from import licensing requirements if they are essential part of capital goods.

• Imports up to 20 items per consignment for R&D, testing, benchmarking, and evaluation repair and re-export, and product development purposes, have also been exempted from import license. Such imports will, however, be only for use for the stated purposes and not for sale. “Further, after the intended purpose, the products would either be destroyed beyond use or re-exported,” the notification said.

• It also said that the license for restricted imports shall not be required for the repair and return of re-import of goods repaired abroad, as per the Foreign Trade Policy.

• The policy/condition for import of the following items covered under CTH 8471 are revised as per attached notification.

This Article is only a knowledge-sharing initiative and is based on the Relevant Provisions as applicable and as per the information existing at the time of the preparation. In no event RMPS & Co. or the Author or any other persons be liable for any direct and indirect result from this Article or any inadvertent omission of the provisions, update etc. if any.

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