-Import consignments can be cleared till October 31 without a license for restricted imports
-The government has fixed August 30 as the last date for manufacturing IT hardware under Rs 17,000-crore PLI scheme
New Bengaluru, NFAPost: The Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT) in a late-night decision on Friday announced that it has decided to delay the licensing mandate for the import of laptops, tablets and personal computers till November 1, 2023.
“Import consignments can be cleared till October 31, 2023 without a license for restricted imports. For clearance of import consignments with effect from Novermber 1, 2023, a valid License for Restricted imports is required: Directorate General of Foreign Trade, Government of India,” said the notification from DGFT.
Import consignments can be cleared till 31.10.2023 without a license for restricted imports. For clearance of import consignments with effect from 01.11.2023, a valid License for Restricted imports is required: Directorate General of Foreign Trade, Government of India pic.twitter.com/li4s6tZt6K
— ANI (@ANI) August 4, 2023
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.
Earlier last week, the government had imposed import restrictions on laptops, tablets, and certain types of computers with immediate effect for security reasons and the need to promote domestic manufacturing. The move will also curtail inbound shipments of these goods from countries like China and Korea.
Importers of these items would now have to seek permission or license from the government for their inbound shipments.
The government’s latest move to impose import restrictions on laptops, tablets and certain types of computers, and allow their import only through valid licences was triggered by “security concerns”, sources said.
Import curbs will allow the Centre to keep a close watch on locations from where products are coming from, they said.
Leading laptop manufacturers register to make their product in India
As many as 44 IT hardware manufacturers including global PC makers have registered for manufacturing laptops, tablets and personal computers in India, an official source said.
The official, without naming any company, said that IT hardware production in the country is expected to repeat the success that has been achieved in mobile phone manufacturing under the production linked incentive (PLI) scheme.
“Leading laptop companies have registered for PLI and some of them are ready to start manufacturing in India any time. Global server companies have said that they want to make India an export hub for servers,” the official said.
The government has fixed August 30 as the last date for manufacturing IT hardware under Rs 17,000-crore PLI scheme.
According to Counterpoint Research, Lenovo, HP, Dell, Apple and Acer were the top five companies in the personal computer segment in the June 2023 quarter.
Research Director of Counterpoint Research Tarun Pathak said the total laptop and PC market size in India is close to USD 8 billion annually, and approximately 65 per cent of the units are imported.
The government has also announced a plan to allow import of laptop, tablets and personal computers with valid license in restricted category from November 1.
“The pull to manufacture IT hardware, especially laptops and tablets, in India, started during PLI 1.0, and it bloomed further with PLI 2.0. We expect local production of IT hardware devices in India will meet 60-65 per cent of domestic demand in the next 2-3 years,” Optiemus Electronics Ltd (OEL) Managing Director A Gururaj said.
Lava International co-founder, Chairman and Managing Director Hari Om Rai said the decision to restrict import via valid permit is a great move by the government.
“It will add 10 billion dollars to laptop manufacturing, billions of dollars of components and millions of jobs. It is also a very big milestone in building the much-needed scale of the supply chain of electronics in India,” Rai added.
He said the government has ensured that there is no disruption in the supply chain so that the companies will have no issues with the “ease of doing business” and the consumers will continue to get the products at the same price.
According to the latest Canalys data, the Indian PC market (desktops, notebooks and tablets) suffered a major year-on-year decline of 35 per cent, with 3.9 million units shipped in the March 2023 quarter.
After a muted 2023, Canalys forecasts that the Indian PC market, including tablets, will rebound strongly with an 11 per cent growth in 2024 and a further 13 per cent growth in 2025.
Deki Electronics MD and CII National Committee for Electronics Chairman Vinod Sharma said the government under IT hardware PLI has provided incentives for the use of locally manufactured components, which will boost the domestic components ecosystem.
“A non-tariff measure in the form of a licence to check imports will boost local production. Imported IT hardware can also be spyware or malware. We have had similar cases in the past. The government is absolutely right in imposing restrictions to make sure that devices are procured from trusted and safe sources,” Sharma said.
Agencies
