Laptop Import Ban: The central government has retreated from its earlier decision to ban the import of laptops. Commerce Secretary Sunil Barthwal has said that India will not ban the import of laptops.
In August 2023, India had announced a ban on import of laptops, which was widely criticized. Sunil Barthwal said in the press conference to release trade data that there will be no ban on the import of laptops and computers in India. He said that the government will monitor the import consignments of importers. Earlier in August, the government had said that the import of laptops, tablets and computers will be kept under the license system from November 1. Sunil Barthwal said, ‘Our view is that there is no such restriction on laptops. We are only saying that there will be strict monitoring of laptops being imported, so that we can keep an eye on these imports. “We are actually monitoring and it has nothing to do with the sanctions,” he said.
Director General of Foreign Trade (DGFT) Santosh Kumar Sarangi said that the import management system will be implemented from November 1. He said that work in this regard is in progress and it is expected that it will be done before October 30. In August, the government had banned the import of laptops, computers, tablets, computers including microcomputers and some data processing machines to promote manufacturing in the country and cut down on imports from countries like China.
After this order of the government, the industry related to IT hardware had expressed concern and appealed to the government to withdraw this order. According to an estimate, India imports electronic items related to computer hardware worth about 7-8 billion dollars every year.
