India only keeping close watch, monitoring source of laptop imports

The government had in August this year, announced curbs on the import of laptops, personal computers, tablets and other related items.

India terms its policy stance on the import of laptops, personal computers (PCs), tablets and other related items as more of an "import management system" wherein the government will keep a close watch on the sources of these inbound shipments.

“We are of the view that there are no restrictions as such. We are only saying that somebody who is importing these laptops will be under close watch. We have PLI (Production Linked Incentive) in the sector and are looking at boosting manufacturing here. We are only monitoring and not imposing restrictions,” Commerce Secretary Sunil Barthwal clarified on October 13 at a press conference during the release of trade data.

The central government will put in place an import management system before October 30, which will be an end-to-end online system to ensure that the process of issuing licences for the import of laptops and related items is streamlined. The decision to put together this system follows frequent consultations among stakeholders and government officials wherein the former raised concerns about not having an end-to-end online system.

“There will be an import limitation dependent on companies registering on a government portal and will be called the import management system. Here, the companies will have to share how many laptops and computers are being imported along with a mandate that the laptops will come from trusted sources,” a senior official told Moneycontrol on condition of anonymity.

This could likely be a watered-down version of the central government's earlier stance, which notified on August 3, curbs on the import of laptops, personal computers, tablets and other related items with immediate effect. However, following a backlash from the industry, the date of implementation was delayed to November 1.

According to the previous announcement, only those with a valid licence would be permitted to import the restricted items. But, certain exceptions were made including for the tasks like R&D, testing, benchmarking, evaluation, repair, re-export, and product development. This move was seen as an effort to to cut imports from China and give a fillip to domestic manufacturing of such devices.

India has seen an increase in imports of electronic goods and laptops/computers in the last few years. During April-June this year, the import of electronic goods increased to $6.96 billion from $4.73 billion in the year-ago period, with a share of 4-7 percent in overall imports. China accounts for roughly 70-80 percent of the share of India’s imports of personal computers and laptops.