Government to Roll Back Import Licensing Requirements on IT Hardware
The government is said to have scrapped plans to impose licencing requirements for the import of IT hardware products such as laptops, tablets, servers, and so on, even in the long run, which will be welcomed by global manufacturers such as Dell, HP, Apple, Samsung, and Asus.
Instead, officials with knowledge of the plans told ET that India will seek to regulate inbound shipments of such products through an import management system. For the time being, the government has decided that no immediate restrictions on imports will be imposed. Companies would only need to register on the import management system that will be set up beginning November 1, when the licencing regime was set to go into effect.
Officials also stated that after six to eight months, an import authorisation mechanism will be put in place to grant quotas to firms importing IT hardware. The government has also assured top IT hardware manufacturers that there will be no quantity restrictions on IT hardware imports until October 2024. "Import authorization will be granted to firms based on three parameters: import value of the previous year or an average of the previous three years for IT products, domestic manufacturing of IT hardware devices, and exports of electronics goods," an official familiar with the details said.