In a significant development, the government is considering a production linked incentive (PLI) scheme for electronics components to reduce import dependence in the coming years.

According to sources in the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), it will send a Cabinet note soon, for consideration at the earliest for the ₹40,000-crore scheme in order to reduce imports from China and Hong Kong.

“It’s under consideration and we will seek the Cabinet nod for this scheme, which will push the Indian component ecosystem,” said a senior official at MeitY.

Recently, the Electronic Industries Association of India (Elcina sought a ₹72,500-crore support package from the Centre to boost local production of raw materials and cut reliance on imports.

According to a report by Counterpoint Research, electronic goods worth $22.8 billion were imported in the first quarter this financial year against $23.4 billion in the previous quarter.

Import authorisation

Meanwhile, the official also said the government was considering extending the import authorisation scheme for laptops, personal computers (PCs) and tablets by another three months, from earlier deadline of December 31.

In August 2023, the DGFT first announced a licencing regime for imports of seven IT hardware products — laptops, PCs, tablets, ultra-small form factor computers, servers, mainframe computers — and automatic data processing machines.

However, the move had to be diluted following stiff resistance from the industry as it affected global majors such as HP, Dell, HP Enterprises, Apple, Acer, Asus, and Lenovo. The US government, too, lobbied hard for its companies.

Since then, it has rolled back the import restrictions and put in place an ‘import authorisation system’ that directed importers of these seven items to obtain import authorisations from the government and the process was made automatic and no limits were placed on imports.