Move to restrict imports of laptops, tablets, computers shelved for now

Sandeep Dikshit

New Delhi, October 13

The government on Friday announced that it was withdrawing its plan to restrict imports of laptops and will hold consultations with the industry and a new order will be issued by the end of October.

The government had sent the IT industry in a tizzy on August 3 when it suddenly announced a licensing regime. Following criticism from the US and major overseas IT hardware giants, it deferred the implementation date to November 1 in order to give time to companies to apply for licences, officials had then said.

They had also underlined that security concerns were behind the decision to impose import restrictions on laptops, tablets and certain types of computers, and allow their import only through valid licences. Import curbs will allow the Centre to keep a close watch on locations from where products are coming from, according to their reasoning although the bill of freight always gives all the specifications, they had argued.

But on Friday, Commerce Secretary Sunil Barthwal said, “India will not impose restrictions on laptop imports” and left the onus of looking after the security aspect to the importers. The government “only wants importers to be on close watch,” he said.

The negotiations for the proposed free trade agreement between India and the UK are at an advanced stage, and both sides are working to iron out differences on the remaining issues, a top government official said on Friday.

Barthwal said negotiations on tough issues were underway with the UK on the FTA. “These negotiations are in an advanced stage. These are going on, and we are ironing out the differences. We should wait till these negotiations are over because the 13th round is going on,” he said. Earlier, both sides were confident that the talks would be wrapped up by this month.

Consultations with industry soon

• In August, the government had announced that laptops, tablets and PCs would be put under licensing regime from November 1
• The licensing conditions on imports were put on the grounds of security and to spur domestic manufacturing of these products
• India is critically dependent on China for day-to-day use and industrial products like mobile phones, laptops, components, solar cell modules and integrated circuits