Laptop, tablet import norms tweaked for easy authorisation

Tribune News Service

Ajay Banerjee

New Delhi, October 19

India has announced a major tweak to its IT hardware import policy, allowing seamless authorisation on web portal for importers under a new automated import regime.

This comes after hardware items of daily use such as laptops, tablets, personal computers and servers were put on the restricted list for import in August. Secretary Ministry of Electronics and IT (MeITY) S Krishnan and Director General Foreign Trade (DGFT) Santosh Sarangi announced the changes here. The import authorisation will be online and an end-to-end online system will ensure it remains faceless and contactless.

Faceless, contactless system

• Govt had put daily use IT hardware such as laptops, tablets on restricted list for import in Aug, deferred it later
• New ‘authorisation’ system will not restrict import & aims to monitor import without hurting supply
• Importer will give item summary and details of past import, export & turnover while seeking authorisation
• It will be faceless, contactless system; government will use data for monitoring inbound shipments

Import of laptops, computers and tablets for personal use will be exempt from import authorisation. Further, import of entities for defence and security purposes will be exempt, as also SEZ units importing items for own use. “The supply chain will not be constrained. We will ensure there is adequate availability and prices don’t go up,” said Krishnan, adding: “We have to ensure there is no shortage for users.”

“The changes announced today are within the WTO framework,” said Krishnan, while answering queries about countries such as the US and Taiwan petitioning the WTO following restrictions imposed by India. The new regime is set to kick in on November 1.

The tweak comes after a round of talks with trade bodies. The changes were based on interaction with industry and idea to make import system totally automated,

said Krishnan. The new import regime would provide data to ensure it remained a digitally trusted system. Intent was not to cause any difficulty or impose restrictions, he added.

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