IT product imports hit $4B this fiscal as review deadline approaches

With the deadline for review of the import management system for laptops and other IT products nearing, the companies that have received authorisations have imported these products worth over $4 billion so far this fiscal, an official said.

These imports stood at $8.4 billion in 2023-24, and most of these imports were coming from China, the official said.

In October last year, the government rolled out an import management or authorisation for imports of laptops, personal computers and certain other IT hardware products. The system is aimed at monitoring inbound shipments of these items into the country without hurting market supply.

The importers are allowed to apply for multiple authorisations and those authorisations would be valid up to September 30, 2024. The authorisations will be issued for any number of consignments for imports till September.

On November 1, 2023, the government cleared over 100 applications, including those of Apple, Dell and Lenovo, which sought permission for imports of these IT hardware products worth nearly $10 billion, on the first day of implementation of the new system.

“Last year, the imports stood at $8.4 billion out of the $10 billion worth of approvals. So far this fiscal, the imports stood at about $4–5 billion,” the official said.

When asked about the plans after the end of the validity on September 30, the official said the commerce ministry will entirely go with the Meity’s (Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology) view on that.

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.

The country has imported personal computers, including laptops, worth $5.33 billion in 2022–23 compared to $7.37 billion in 2021–22.

The main countries from where these goods were imported in 2022–23 included China ($5.11 billion), Singapore ($1.4 billion), Hong Kong ($807 million), the US, Malaysia, Taiwan, Netherland and Vietnam. PTI