India reaffirms restrictions on import of certain electronics & IT goods

India has reaffirmed its restrictions on the import of certain electronics and IT Goods, an official notification of the Commerce Ministry dated May 20 read. It may be noted that this order has been in place since 2021 and was updated with requisite notifications.

The ministry has prohibited the import of unregistered, non-compliant notified products as in Electronics and IT Goods.

"There is no implication of this notification. The import policy for these categories in question were restricted anyway, so its status quo," news agency Reuters quoted a government official aware of the matter as saying.


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For LED products and DC/AC supplied control gears for LED modules, agencies will pick up samples on a random basis from randomly selected consignments. These products will then be sent to labs for testing of limited defined non-destructive safety parameters from the applicable standards.

Following this, the Customs shall greenlight only those consignments which comply with the parameters. The others will be set back or destroyed at the cost of importer, the amended rules read.

Goods that don't meet standards of the Bureau of Indian Standards, or don't comply with Labelling Requirements will have to be re-exported or will be scrapped off by the government agencies.

India IT import policies

In August 2023, the government imposed restrictions on certain IT hardware items. Following concerns raised by domestic and foreign companies, in October, it tweaked restrictions on laptop and computer imports. Importers are now permitted to bring in these hardware items from abroad with only an 'authorization', specifying quantity and value.

Worries from industry prompted the DGFT to issue a clarification saying that there are no import restrictions on certain IT hardware products like desktop computers. However, the import of laptops, tablets, all-in-one personal computers, ultra small form factor computers is restricted and imports of these goods are valid against import authorisation.

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