The Indian leadership has decided to ease the planned restrictive measures against the import of laptops, tablets, and other IT equipment.
Changes in the rules for importing products of this category to South Asian country will provide companies engaged in the production of relevant devices with additional time to prepare for potentially possible new trade and economic standards. The news about the easing of restrictive measures is unequivocally positive for brands such as Apple, HP, and Dell Technologies.
The media, citing insiders who are aware of the plans of the Indian leadership, discussed in the so-called closed-door mode, talk about the decision of the country’s leadership to cancel the rule providing for mandatory licensing of technology importers. As part of the new concept of legal control over the process of coming products to the South Asian country, a requirement for registration of the company in the import management system will be introduced. This information is preliminary and has not yet been commented on at the official level.
Insiders referred to the media report that the import management system will start functioning in India from November 1 this year. The persons who informed the journalists about the intentions of the leadership of the mentioned country in the sphere of trade and economic control asked not to be named, since the issue is not public.
The Government of India is currently making efforts to develop the local manufacturing sector. The country’s leadership also seeks to avoid various radical decisions within the framework of these actions, which can significantly reduce the level of availability of consumer electronics due to large-scale restrictions on the activities of foreign companies that produce the corresponding products.
In August, the Indian government announced its intention to impose a ban on the import of laptops and tablets without a license, about which nothing was known before the official public information about these plans appeared. The news came as a shock to manufacturers such as Apple and Samsung Electronics. The day after the announcement of the government’s plans to restrict imports, the Indian trade representative announced that the entry into force of the relevant decision had been postponed for three months. New insider data indicate that the country’s leadership has decided to abandon the idea of licensing and introduce a more liberal system in terms of the content of regulatory requirements for managing the process of importing goods from foreign companies operating in the technology industry.
Media informants who are aware of the Indian government’s plans specify that under the new import management concept, manufacturers of tablets, laptops, servers, desktops, and other IT equipment will have to register in a kind of special state list of firms. The new regulatory framework is fundamentally different from the licensing regime in that it does not provide for any restrictions on the volume of product deliveries. At the same time, insiders specify that the possibility of importing goods in any quantities will be for the first six to nine months after the entry into force of the new management system. It is not yet known what restrictions will be set after the expiration of the mentioned period.
According to experts, the government of India may begin to gradually introduce an import quota after the production of laptops, tablets, and other devices of the technological category in large volumes is established at local factories. The size of the restrictions, analysts believe, will be individual for each company. They say that this indicator will be directly dependent on the volume of output specific to a particular manufacturer and on the scale of export activities.
The restrictions are part of measures to implement the strategy of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi to create a world-class high-tech manufacturing industry in the country. To achieve this goal, it is necessary to create conditions for the development of the local manufacturing sector. These efforts are to a certain extent favored by the geopolitical situation, within which there is tension in relations between Washington and Beijing, forcing some companies to diversify supply chains outside China amid fears of US sanctions and restrictions. The United States has already restricted Chinese firms’ access to advanced chips and the equipment needed to produce them.
As part of stimulating the development of the local technology sector, India has developed and presented a plan to attract foreign computer companies to the country. Government funding for $2.1 billion is provided to achieve this goal. Companies such as Dell, HP, Lenovo, Foxconn Technology Group, and Asustek Computer have already applied to the Indian government for subsidies for the manufacturing of laptops, tablets, and other devices in the technology product category.
