Commerce Secretary Sunil Barthwal. File
| Photo Credit: PTI

Photo used for illustration purpose only.
| Photo Credit: The Hindu

India’s goods exports dropped 9.32% to $34.71 billion in August, while the import bill expanded 3.3% to $64.36 billion.

The trade deficit widened to a ten-month high of $29.65 billion, reckoned to be the second highest monthly gap in goods trade.

“Gold imports more than doubled from $4.9 billion a year ago to $10.06 billion this August. Trade deficit should not be a matter of concern for a developing economy and you should not compare the deficits of developed countries with fast growing countries like India,” said Commerce Secretary Sunil Barthwal.

“To the extent there are no foreign exchange issues, it should not matter,” he asserted.

On the spike in gold imports, Trade Ministry officials said “Gold prices have declined globally and there has also been an import duty cut. Moreover, this is the time of the year that jewellers start stocking up for the festive and wedding season.”

The Indian government has stated that it won’t enforce licensing or similar constraints on laptop and computer imports. Instead, it is establishing a mechanism to track the volume and source of these imports.

A statement from Commerce Secretary Sunil Barthwal was issued two weeks ago to address the misinformation about potential laptop import restrictions.

“On laptops, we are of the view that there are no restrictions as such. We are only saying that somebody who is importing these laptops has to be under close watch so that we can look at these imports. It is basically monitoring, which we are doing. It has nothing to do with restrictions as such,” Commerce Secretary Sunil Barthwal said.

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These remarks carry significance as the government had previously announced in August that products like laptops, tablets, and computers would require licensing, effective November 1.

Explaining further, Director General of Foreign Trade (DGFT) Santosh Kumar Sarangi said there will be an import management system, which will come into place on November 1.

In August, the government imposed import restrictions on laptops, computers (including tablet computers), microcomputers, large or mainframe computers, and certain data processing machines with a view to boosting domestic manufacturing and cutting imports from countries like China. Following this notification, the IT hardware industry raised concerns.

India already has an import monitoring system for certain products like steel, coal, and paper. The licensing conditions on imports were put in place on the grounds of security and to spur domestic manufacturing of these products.

According to a report by think-tank Global Trade Research Initiative (GTRI), India is critically dependent on China for day-to-day use and industrial products like mobile phones, laptops, components, solar cell modules, and integrated circuits.

The government has taken several steps to boost domestic manufacturing of electronic items, such as rolling out the production-linked incentive scheme and increasing customs duties on the number of electronic components.

India imports about $7-8 billion worth of these goods every year.

The country has imported personal computers, including laptops, worth $5.33 billion in 2022-23, as against $7.37 billion in 2021-22.

Imports of certain data processing machines stood at $553 million in the last fiscal year, as against $583.8 million in 2021-22.

Similarly, imports of microcomputers and processors stood at $1.2 million in the last fiscal year, compared to $2.08 million in 2021-22.

In May, the government approved the Production-Linked Incentive Scheme 2.0 for IT Hardware with a budgetary outlay of ₹ 17,000 crore.

(With inputs from PTI)

New Delhi:

India will not impose the licensing requirement on imports of laptops and computers but will only monitor their inbound shipments, a top government official said.

The remarks assume significance as the government in August announced that these products, including laptops, tablets and computers, would be put under licensing regime from November 1.

“On laptops, we are of the view that there are no restrictions as such. We are only saying that somebody who is importing these laptops, have to be under close watch, so that we can look at these imports.

“It is basically monitoring, which we are doing. It has nothing to do with restrictions as such,” Commerce Secretary Sunil Barthwal told reporters here.

Explaining further, Director General of Foreign Trade (DGFT) Santosh Kumar Sarangi said there will be an import management system, which will come into place from November 1.

The work is in progress and hopefully it will be in place before October 30, he said.

The government in August imposed import restrictions on laptops, computers (including tablet computers), micro computers, large or mainframe computers, and certain data processing machines with a view to boost domestic manufacturing and cut imports from countries like China.

While the IT hardware product industry comes under MeitY, the DGFT notifies decisions with regard to import/export of a product.

Following this notification, IT hardware industry had flagged concerns.

India already has an import monitoring system for certain products like steel, coal and paper.

The licensing conditions on imports were put on the grounds of security and to spur domestic manufacturing of these products.

According to a report by think-tank Global Trade Research Initiative (GTRI), India is critically dependent on China for day-to-day use and industrial products like mobile phones, laptops, components, solar cell modules, and integrated circuits.

The government has taken several steps to boost domestic manufacturing of electronic items such as rolling out of the production-linked incentive scheme and increasing customs duties on the number of electronic components.

India imports about USD 7-8 billion worth of these goods every year.

The country has imported personal computers, including laptops, worth USD 5.33 billion in 2022-23 as against USD 7.37 billion in 2021-22.

Imports of certain data processing machines stood at USD 553 million in the last fiscal as against USD 583.8 million in 2021-22.

Similarly, imports of micro computers/processors stood at USD 1.2 million in the last fiscal against USD 2.08 million in 2021-22.

In May, the government approved the Production-Linked Incentive Scheme 2.0 for IT Hardware with a budgetary outlay of Rs 17,000 crore.

The government, in February 2021, approved the scheme for IT hardware, covering the production of laptops, tablets, All-in-One PCs and servers with an outlay of Rs 7,350 crore.