The government is likely to defer the implementation of the new import licensing rules for laptops, tablets and all-in-one PCs by about a year following consultations with industry officials and associations.

The process of import authorisation for laptops, tablets and servers will be online and will require data for the past three years, sources said.

Industry players have been informed that the “import management system” portal, which will be managed by Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT), will go live by the end of this month.

The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) has informed companies that ‘import management system’ will go live by September end. It will be managed by DGFT. It has asked importers to feed their organisation data and import data for the past three years.

On August 3, the government had announced immediate restrictions on the imports of laptops, tablets, and PCs and notified that the companies will be able to import such products only after a valid licence. However, the very next day it extended the deadline to November 1.

The new rule will allow imports of IT hardware by authorised firms. “The import authorisation will be processed completely online without any manual interventions for speedy approval,” an industry source said.

The authorisation will be initially granted for about a year, after which there will be gradual reduction of 5 per cent on import quota of finished products. “There may be conditional relief on import quota on a case to case basis,” the industry source said.

However, if a manufacturer is importing components and making finished products in an SEZ or in export oriented units, it would not be considered as imports, sources added.