Cos get breather as import curbs on PCs are deferred

Apple, Dell, HP, Lenovo, Samsung, among others, halt PC shipments to India

- Gulveen Aulakh & Ravi Dutta Mishra

The government has extended the deadline for implementing import restrictions on laptops, tablets, and servers to 1 November, a late evening government notification said.

According to the notification from the Directorate General of Foreign Trade, import consignments can be cleared without a licence until 31 October.

“There will be a transition period for this to be put into effect, which will be notified soon," Rajeev Chandrasekhar, minister of state for electronics and information technology, said in a post on social media X on Friday before the notification was issued.

“There is no ban on imports. Companies and traders can import IT hardware, laptops, tablets etc. They will get time to apply for import licences," a government official said earlier, providing much-needed relief to companies that were taken by surprise by the order issued Thursday. He declined to be named.

Another official who also did not want to be identified said that two companies had already applied on the portal introduced by the Director General of Foreign Trade, the body under the ministry of commerce and industries.

An entity can apply for more than one licence for more than one instance or shipment. Multiple units can also apply for licences. The licences will be given for one year. Officials said that the extension was being considered after the industry demanded more time for compliance.