Govt may extend laptop licensing by a year

The government may most likely extend the deadline for implementing licensing of laptops, tablets, personal computers and servers by around 9-12 months beyond the current one, which kicks in from November 1. Since the response to the Rs 17,000-crore IT hardware PLI scheme has been quite positive, it is felt that a year’s time should be given for results to show. 

Another factor, which has weighed in favour of deferring the November 1 deadline, is that there has been a surge in smartphones and electronic exports in FY23. This could be adversely impacted if any kind of similar retaliatory import restrictions are levied by countries like US.  

For instance, in the first two months of the current financial year, the US emerged as the biggest market for India-made smartphones, with shipments growing by 775% Y-o-Y. In FY23, India exported smartphones worth $11.1 billion, up 96% year-on-year, and a substantial chunk of this went to US. Any retaliatory move by US Administration against India may adversely hit the smartphone PLI. 

The country exported $2.4 billion worth of smartphones in April-May this year, of which $812.49 million or a third went to the US. In contrast, smartphone exports to the US stood at just $92.2 million or barely 10% of the total a year ago. In fact, smartphones have become the second biggest item of exports to the US. 

Similarly, electronics exports from India in FY23 rose 57% YoY to $23.6 billion and became the sixth largest among other products, up from ninth place four years back. 

Eight industry associations whose membership includes the likes of Apple, Amazon, AMD, HP, Dell, Intel, Cisco, Samsung, IBM, Meta, and Micron among others, have already written to the US Government to urge the Indian Government to reconsider implementation of import licensing. The companies have pointed out that the licensing regime will affect imports of products made by US companies, including some products manufactured in the United States.