New Delhi: The Government of India on Thursday took a strict decision to impose restrictions on imports of laptops, tablets, and personal computers under HSN 8471 with immediate effect.

In a notice, the Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT) stated, “Import of Laptops, Tablets, All-in-one Personal Computers, and Ultra small form factor Computers and Servers falling under HSN 8741 shall be ‘Restricted’ and their import would be allowed against a valid Licence for Restricted Imports.”

Apart from this, the Ministry of Commerce and Industry said that the enforced restriction will exclude the Imports under Baggage Rules.

The notification further added exemption from Import Licensing requirements, which is provided for the import of 1 laptop, tablet, All-in-one Personal Computer or Ultra Small form factor computer. The exemption also mentioned electronic gadgets purchased from e-commerce portals through post or courier.

As per the government, the imports are subject to payment of duty as applicable in the future.

To carry out R&D (Research and Development), the exemption from impart license is provided for about 20 such items per consignment involved in it. The exclusion is also made for testing benchmarking, evaluation repair and re-export and product development purposes.

“The move’s spirit is to push manufacturing to India. It’s not a nudge, it’s a push,” said Ali Akhtar Jafri, former director general at the electronics industry body Manufacturers’ Association of Information Technology.

The ministry further stated, “Given imports shall be allowed subject to condition that the imported goods shall be used for the stated purposes only and will not be sold.”

Adding further, it said that as the intended purpose ends, the products would either be destroyed to the extent that it becomes difficult to use it or would be re-exported.

(Written by- Mahek  Nigam 

Edited by- Mayank Kasyap)