Centre Rolls Back Restrictions On Laptop Imports

SUMMARY

Trade Secretary Sunil Barthwal said the government "only wants importers to be on close watch"

DGFT Santosh Kumar Sarangi said the Indian government is holding consultations with the industry and a new order on laptop imports would be announced by the end of October

In August, the Centre imposed immediate restrictions on the import of laptops, tablets, and personal computers, however, the deadline was extended

The union government has decided to roll back its decision to impose restrictions on laptop imports, Trade Secretary Sunil Barthwal said at a press conference on Friday (October 13).

As per a Reuters report, Barthwal said the government “only wants importers to be on close watch”.

The development comes months after the Centre imposed immediate restrictions on the import of laptops, tablets, and personal computers in August this year. However, the government faced criticism from the industry on the move.

US-based tech majors, including Apple, Intel, Google, and Dell, sought help from the US government and urged US President Joe Biden to intervene and make India reconsider these restrictions.

While the Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT) extended the deadline till 31 October for acquiring a valid licence for restricted imports, several laptop manufacturers asked the Centre for further extension.

As per the news agency, DGFT Santosh Kumar Sarangi said that the Indian government is holding consultations with the industry and a new order on laptop imports would be announced by the end of October. However, he didn’t disclose any further details.

It must be noted that the Centre has been focusing on increasing domestic manufacturing across sectors and has launched production-linked incentives (PLI) schemes for various sectors.

In fact, after the ban on laptops, 44 hardware manufacturers applied for manufacturing in India under the government’s INR 17,000 Cr PLI scheme for manufacturing IT hardware.