Apple, HP, Dell, Others Seek Extension Of Laptop Import Restriction Deadline By A Year

IT hardware companies Apple, Dell, HP, Acer, among others have reportedly sought an extension of nine months to a year for the deadline for import restrictions for laptops, tablets, personal computers to come into effect.

During a meeting with senior officials of the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), executives of these companies said they need time to set up manufacturing facilities in India, ET reported.

During the meeting, government officials assured that import licensing norms for specified electronics items are not to discourage or ban imports. Rather, the government is looking at minimising imports and promoting exports from India by augmenting domestic manufacturing capabilities.

Besides foreign original equipment manufacturers (OEM), government officials also met senior executives from Indian OEMs to find out details of their production capacity and the time needed to ramp up production.

Earlier this month, the Indian government imposed immediate restrictions on import of laptops, tablets, and personal computers falling under HSN 8741 category.

The Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT) in a notification said that exemption from import licensing is provided for up to 20 items per consignment for R&D, testing, benchmarking and evaluation, repair and return, product development purposes.

However, a day after announcement of import restrictions, the DGFT extended the deadline till 31 October for acquiring a valid licence for restricted imports. “Import consignments can be cleared till October 31, 2023, without a licence for restricted imports,” the notification said.

Post November 1, no entity will be allowed to import laptops, computers, and related items without a license.

Meanwhile, within a few days after the notification, as many as 44 hardware manufacturers reportedly applied for manufacturing in India under the production-linked incentive (PLI) scheme. These hardware makers also include global players, who have registered to set up a base in the country.

The government has set August 30 as the last date to apply for the INR 17,000 Cr PLI scheme for manufacturing IT hardware in the country.

The PLI scheme is aimed at promoting domestic manufacturing of laptops, PCs, servers and related-edge computing kits.

The Indian market for laptops and PCs is dominated by major foreign players such as Dell, Acer, Samsung, Panasonic, Apple, Lenovo and HP.

As per Counterpoint Research, the homegrown laptop and PC market size in India stood at around $8 Bn annually, and nearly 65% of the units are imported.