Centre clicks enter for online nod to IT hardware imports
laptops, tablets, and personal computers, aiming to monitor shipments of such hardware without hurting supply. The shift to a restrictionfree system comes two months after the announcement of a licensing regime for these products.
Director General of Foreign Trade (DGFT) Santosh Kumar Sarangi said that the policy tweaks seek to monitor the imports of these products to ensure that they were coming from “trusted” sources.
The import authorisation will remain valid till September 30, 2024.
Sources said the government has received around 100 applications for import of ICT products which would be processed now after the newly launched online portal.
“We need data to see if imports are coming from one source. We need to monitor them as 2-3 nations such as China, Singapore and Hong Kong account for more than 80% of these imported goods,” said an official.
The new system will come into force from November 1, but importers were allowed to apply for import authorisation from Thursday.
There will be no restriction on quantity, value, country or origin. The Cantre will not reject any import requests and will use the data only for monitoring, the official said.
“There is no withdrawal of any notification,” Sarangi said.
In August, the government placed these products in the restricted imports category, making licence mandatory for their imports.
