DGFT vide Notification No. 23/2023 dated 3rd August 2023 has amended the import policy of Laptops, Tablets, All-in-one Personal Computers, and Ultra Small Form Factor Computers and Servers (HSN 8471) to ‘RESTRICTED CATEGORY’ with effect from 1st November 2023. Therefore, pursuant to the policy, a restricted license from DGFT (Exim facilitation Committee) is required before importing of such items.
Following items are categorized under the restricted category: –
However, this restriction shall not be applicable in the following cases: –
1. Import of such items under Baggage Rules.
2. Import of 1 no. of such items including purchase from e-commerce portal or through post or courier (duty shall be applicable).
3. If such items are an essential part of Capital Goods to be imported.
4. Such items (up to 20 numbers) to be imported for the purpose of R&D, Testing, Benchmarking and Evaluation, Repair and Re-export, Product Development Purposes. Subject to the product would either be destroyed or re-exported after the intended purpose.
A company willing to import these items must obtain import authorisation from DGFT and NOC from the concerned department before importing. The authorisation is issued on an Actual User condition and not for trading which will be a huge jolt to the Indian industry. Therefore, it is expected that the Government shall come out with criteria for giving these import authorisation.
This notification will have a huge impact on the industry and specifically companies which are completely dependent on imports for selling it in the domestic market.
In addition, the Government has rolled out Production Linked Incentive (PLI) Scheme for the same sector for which Government has allocated more than 17,000 Crores.
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