Govt simplifies norms for laptop imports

New Delhi: The central government on Thursday tweaked the cumbersome licensing norms to import IT hardware products like laptops and computers and put in place an online authorisation system for importers of these goods. The new licensing or authorisation regime, which will come into operation with immediate effect, is primarily aimed at monitoring imports of these products to ensure that they are coming from trusted sources, Director General of Foreign Trade (DGFT) Santosh Kumar Saranagi told reporters here.

After taking into account the concerns of stakeholders of the sector, some ‘tweaking’ in the policy has been made, and an end-to-end online system was launched for importers, he added. The system, he said, will ensure that it will be faceless and contactless, and there will be no hassles for importers to fill in their details.

The announcement assumes significance as the government announced on August 4 that an importer would need a license for the import of these goods from November 1, with a view to boosting domestic manufacturing and cutting imports from countries like China. The new license regime is applicable to laptops, personal computers (including tablet computers), microcomputers, large or mainframe computers, and certain data processing machines to ensure India’s trusted supply chain.