The Centre on Thursday imposed restrictions on imports of laptops, tablets and personal computers under HSN 8471 with immediate effect, according to a notice from the Directorate General of Foreign Trade.

The notice mentioned, “Import of Laptops, Tablets, All-in-one Personal Computers, and Ultra small form factor Computers and Servers falling under HSN 8741 shall be ‘Restricted’ and their import would be allowed against a valid Licence for Restricted Imports.”

The Ministry of Commerce and Industry said, “The said Restriction shall not apply to Imports under Baggage Rules, as amended from time to time.”

“Exemption from Import Licencing requirements is provided for Import of 1 Laptop, Tablet, All-in-one Personal Computer or Ultra small form factor Computer, including those purchased from e-commerce portals through post or courier,” the ministry added.

The Centre further added that the imports shall be subject to payment of duty as applicable.

The government mentioned that the exemption from impart license is provided for up to 20 such items per consignment for R&D Testing Benchmarking and evaluation repair and re-export, and the purpose of product development.

The statement further said, “Given imports shall be allowed subject to the condition that the imported goods shall be used for the stated purposes only and will not be sold,” stated the ministry, and added, “Further, after the intended purpose, the products would either be destroyed beyond use or re-exported.”

However, the license for restricted imports shall not be required for the repair and return of said items, the ministry has clarified.