An online system has been readied for implementing the new system of approvals for import of laptops, tablets and servers and this will kick in from next month, a senior official said Thursday.
The licensing system now being proposed will be of the nature of import management system where companies would be issued an authorisation on application.
There will be no further extension of the transition period for the shift to the licensing regime for import of these products, the official asserted.
“It will be a very soft licensing system, with authorisation as per the request for imports of certain numbers,” the official who wished not to be identified said.
The government is not looking to put any overall limits on the quantum of imports. India already has an import monitoring system for many products like steel, coal and paper. The import management system for laptops and tablets would work on similar lines.
The official said that the government is streamlining the entire system (for laptop licensing) and making it completely online. In some other products where import licences are needed a lot of paperwork is also involved for approvals but for laptops it will all be digital.
After the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) comes with full details the Commerce and Industry Ministry would issue a clarification on its August 3 order putting imports of laptops, tablets and other computing devices in the ‘restricted for imports’ category requiring prior licences. At first the order had put licencing requirements with immediate effect later the amendments were made a transition period was provided till October 31. The new licensing system will get operational from November 1.
The licensing conditions on imports were put on the grounds of ‘security’ and to spur domestic manufacturing of these products. While announcing the licensing rules the government had also said that it wants IT products to come from “trusted sources”.
India imports about $ 8 billion worth goods every year on which restrictions have been placed. Most of these come from China.
To push domestic manufacturing, the government had announced a Rs 17000 crore revised Production Linked Incentive scheme for IT hardware manufacturing.
Under the new scheme it has received 32 applications from laptop manufacturers which include names like Dell, HP, Foxconn, Lenovo, Acer, Asus, Flextronics and Optiemus.
In the earlier version of the Rs 7,350 crore PLI scheme, applications of 14 companies including Dell, ICT (Wistron), Rising Stars Hi-Tech (Foxconn), Lava, Dixon, and Optiemus Electronics, were approved. However, only two companies – Dell and Bhagwati – were able to meet FY22 targets.