India Will Not Impose Licensing Requirement for Imports of Laptops And Computers, Apple, Samsung

Licensing will not be implemented for import of computers and laptops in the country. However, shipments of these devices will be monitored. Earlier in August, the central government had announced the implementation of licensing requirement for import of some products including computers, laptops and tablets from November 1.

Commerce Secretary Sunil Barthwal told reporters told“We believe that there are no such restrictions regarding laptops. We are only saying that the import of laptops should be monitored. We are only monitoring. There are no such restrictions.” Regarding this, the Director General of Foreign Trade (DGFT) has said that there will be an import management system for this. It will be implemented from November 1.

The regulation of the IT hardware industry is with MeitY. DGFT notifies the decisions related to import or export of a product. However, the IT hardware industry has expressed apprehensions about this. A source associated with this industry said, “This will be like an import management system in which an authorization will be issued to the people. This is a type of licensing.” In this, companies will have to apply for import in a specific number and they will get authorization for import.

Samsung, one of the largest consumer electronics companies, has prepared to increase manufacturing in the country. The company’s smartphones are already being produced in the country. Samsung also plans to manufacture laptops in its factory in Greater Noida, Uttar Pradesh. This will give a boost to the Make in India scheme of the Central Government. Under this scheme, incentives are given for electronics manufacturing. Samsung has prepared to set up a new laptop manufacturing unit in the factory producing smartphones. This unit will have the capacity to manufacture 60,000-70,000 laptops annually. With the aim of attracting large investments in IT hardware manufacturing, the government had announced a manufacturing incentive scheme of two billion dollars. The government aims to increase the annual production of electronics to 300 billion dollars 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.