India has extended the import authorisation system for certain IT hardware products, including laptops, PCs and tablets, by another year. 

The system, which was last extended by three months till December 31, 2024, will now continue till the end of calendar year 2025, notification issued by the Directorate General of Foreign Trade on Wednesday.

Importers of the seven IT hardware items, which also includes ultra small form factor computers and servers, will need to apply for import authorisations for the calendar year 2025 in the import management system (IMS) on the DGFT website, the notification stated.

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The application portal will be open from December 13, 2024 to December 15, 2025.

“Any authorisation issued for import of restricted IT Hardware under IMS shall be valid till December 31, 2025,” it noted. Importers will be allowed to submit multiple applications for authorisations.

The government’s decision to continue with the import authorisation system by another year brings an end to the uncertainty faced by IT majors such as HP, Dell, Apple and Lenovo, as the existing system is liberal and results in automatic issuance of import authorisations once importers apply online. 

The IT hardware products were placed under the restricted import category on October 1, 2023, but the rules were made non-prohibitive and did not put any restrictions on quantities as long as importers apply to the DGFT for automatic import authorisations.

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The importers need to enter details such as the value, volume and country of sourcing for the proposed imports which helps the government in monitoring it.

There were apprehensions that the import system may be made more restrictive as the intention of the government in moving from a free import regime to a restricted regime was to check imports, especially from China, and give domestic manufacturing a push.

As the government already has a Production Linked Incentive (PLI) for IT hardware products for encouraging domestic production, restricting imports of the items is expected to bolster the scheme.

“The government held intensive discussions with industry representatives who pushed for continuation of the system for some more time,” an official told businessline.

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Earlier US Trade Representative Katherine Tai had discussed India’s import policy on the IT hardware items with Commerce & Industry Piyush Goyal and had made a case for transparency and certainty.

The introduction of the import authorisation system did not affect imports significantly with total imports of the seven IT hardware items declining about 3.4 per cent in 2023-24 to $8.4 billion compared to $8.7 billion in the previous fiscal. The share of China, the country being especially scrutinised by the government, was at about 60 per cent, sources said.