'There will be transition period': Minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar on laptop, PC import restrictions

New Delhi, Aug 6

Union Minister of State for Electronics and Information Technology Rajeev Chandrasekhar on Friday said that there will be a transition period when it comes to enacting a policy that restricts the import of laptops and personal computers (PC)

"There will be a transition period for this to be put into effect which will be notified soon," Chandrasekhar tweeted, a day after the Union Commerce Ministry announced that PC, laptop, tablet, and server manufacturers would now need to have a license and pay duty when importing.

Earlier in the day, Chandrasekhar, said that India is becoming one of the world's fastest-growing markets for digital products including laptops and servers etc.

"It is the government’s objective to ensure trusted hardware and systems, reduce import dependence and increase domestic manufacturing of this category of products," he posted on Twitter (now X).

Commenting on a Twitter user’s post which stated that the import restriction on PCs, laptops and tablets will only hit consumers, the Minister said that rapid digitalisation/ cloudification of our economy and rapid growth of our digital economy is fuelling demand growth.

"This is not at all about license raj. It is about regulating imports to ensure trusted and verifiable systems and ensuring the India tech ecosystem uses trusted and verified systems only that are imported and/or domestically manufactured trusted systems/products," he said.