Make In India: IT minister explains why government imposed new norms on import of laptops

The DGFT in a notification said that companies will now require licences for importing laptops and tablets. Current regulations in India allow companies to import laptops freely. The move could affect technology companies such as Apple, Dell and Samsung, and force them to boost local manufacturing.

“India is becoming one of the world’s fastest growing markets for Digital products including Laptops, Servers etc. India and DigitalNagriks will consume millions of Digital products in the coming Techade,” Chandrasekhar said in a post on X.
He added that rapid digitalisation/ cloudification of India’s economy and rapid growth of the country’s digital economy is fueling demand growth.
“It is [the] government’s objective to ensure trusted hardware and systems, reduce import dependance and increase domestic manufacturing of this category of products,” the minister noted.
“This is not at all about licence raj – it is about regulating imports to ensure trusted and verifiable systems and ensuring India tech eco-system uses trusted and verified systems only that are imported and/or domestically manufactured trusted systems / products,” he explained.

Most of the laptops and personal computers that are sold in India are manufactured or assembled in China. With the new rule, the government plans to shift manufacturing and assembling in India.
Laptop imports exemptions
The government has listed certain exemptions on laptop imports. If you purchase one unit of a laptop, tablet, all-in-one personal computer or ultra-small form factor computer from abroad, you must pay duty as applicable and there is no need to obtain a licence.
For bulk consignment of up to 20 units, there is also an exemption from seeking import licensing, given that the goods are purchased for R&D, testing, benchmarking and evaluation, repair and return, and product development purposes.