The South Asian country is doing away with a compulsory licensing requirement for tech importers, and will instead only ask such companies to register under its so-called import management system, people familiar with the policy said. The system will start operating on Nov. 1, they said, asking not to be named as the matter isn’t public.
India is seeking to boost local production while trying to ensure sufficient availability of consumer electronics. The federal government last month shocked companies such as Apple and Samsung Electronics Co. as it announced a plan to curb laptop and tablet imports without a suddenly required license. A day later India’s trade regulator delayed the move by three months.
As part of the latest plan… the new rules won’t limit inbound shipments for about six to nine months, the people said.
A quota on imports could gradually kick in as companies begin to manufacture laptops, tablets and other hardware locally. The size of each company’s quota will depend on its local production, import of IT hardware as well as export of such products from India, the people said.
The planned new rules don’t apply to smartphones.
