Centre, stakeholders discuss 2 new standards for import of laptops, tablets

The new 'import management system' is now scheduled to be effective from November 1, 2023.

The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) on September 8 spoke to stakeholders on two criteria in the country's new import licensing regime.

The proposed changes involve linking the import of information technology (IT) hardware, including laptops, tablets, personal computers, and small servers, to a company's local manufacturing value and its export value of electronic items, such as such as IT hardware, mobile phones, wearables, hearables and telecom products, the Business Standard reported.

Moneycontrol couldn't verify the report independently.

More importantly, companies will earn credits based on their exports and domestic production, and these credits then be used to cover the costs of importing goods.

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This initiative comes after the Centre recently introduced an import licensing regime for IT products, reflecting efforts to promote local manufacturing and reduce dependence on imports in the technology sector.

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The new import licensing regime for IT hardware in India will assign each company a quota for the import of such products. This quota will undergo gradual reductions on a year-by-year basis, finally reaching 10 percent in the fourth year compared to the first year, the report said.

The new “import management system” is now scheduled to be effective from November 1, 2023, providing companies additional time to prepare for and adapt to the new regulations.

The government has given assurance that the new import licensing regime will not upset the supply chain for laptops. Because, it will take some time for the eligible companies under the Product-Linked Incentive (PLI) scheme 2.0 for IT hardware to start local assembly operations in India. During this transition period, imports of laptops and other IT hardware will continue to ensure a smooth supply chain and availability of these products in the market.

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Many companies are advocating for a postponement of the licensing regime until October 2024 as it would allow the government to assess the progress of the PLI 2.0 scheme for IT hardware, including factors such as eligible companies meeting their investment requirements, achieving domestic production targets, and activating their export goals.

“There was a miscommunication earlier that we were imposing a mandatory import licensing regime. But what we plan to do is manage the import of these products. We had called a meeting to ask the stakeholders to give suggestions on how the proposed import management system should work and get their feedback,” the financial daily quoted a top a top MeitY official as saying.