Government Restricts Import of Laptop And PC, To Push Local Manufacturing, HP, Dell, Lenovo, Samsung

Import of laptops, personal computers, and tablets has been banned in the country. The central government has taken this decision to increase local manufacturing. This may have a big impact on the import of laptops and personal computers from China. The import of electronics in the country during April to June was around $ 19.7 billion. This included laptops, personal computers and tablets.

In a notice issued by the government on Thursday, it is said, “Import will be allowed on valid license for limited import.” Electronics accounts for 7 to 10 percent of the country’s total merchandise import. Ali Akhtar Jafri, former director general of MAIT, an organization associated with the electronics industry, said, “The purpose of this decision is to increase manufacturing in the country.” Through production-linked incentives, the government is trying to increase local manufacturing in more than two dozen sectors, including electronics.

Laptop, Personal ComputerTo attract big investments in IT hardware manufacturing including smartphones, tablets and servers, the government has extended the deadline to apply for the $2 billion manufacturing incentive scheme. The scheme is important to make the country a major force in the global electronics supply chain. The government aims to increase the annual production of electronics to $300 billion by 2026. Major companies selling laptops in the country include Apple, Dell, Lenovo and HP, Acer, Samsung and LG. A large number of laptops are imported from countries like China.

Madhavi Arora, economist at Emkay Global, said the decision appears to be aimed at curbing large-scale imports of certain goods. Laptops, personal computers and tablets account for about 1.5 per cent of the country’s total imports. About half of these are purchased from China. The government had earlier raised tariffs on products such as mobile phones to promote local manufacturing. Global PC shipments fell by about 30 per cent in the first quarter. Demand for companies like HP, Lenovo and Dell had increased sharply during the Corona period. The main reason for this was the increase in sales of laptops and other electronic devices due to the staff of many companies working from home. Sales of devices such as laptops have declined due to most companies calling workers back to the office.