MeitY secretary S Krishnan said the ministry would develop a new mechanism till 2025 to replace the existing scheme.

Krishnan reiterated that the scheme was aimed at securing the IT hardware manufacturing value chain and the equipment itself.

In September, the DGFT extended the authorization to import certain IT hardware products, including PCs, tablets and servers, until the end of 2024.

Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) Secretary S Krishnan was quoted as saying that the Center plans to extend the existing import clearance regime for certain IT hardware products, including PCs, tablets and servers, until the end of 2025.

While talking to NDTV Profit, Krishnan said the ministry would develop a new mechanism till 2025 to replace the existing scheme.

“The current program has been extended until December 2024. Beyond December as well, it must for now also continue for an additional year. We will conduct a review at the end of this period and sometime in the 2025 calendar year and determine what to do next with the program,” Krishnan said.

It is relevant to note that the import authorization regime was due to expire in September 2024, but was extended by the DGFT until the end of the current calendar year. However, management added that importers will be obliged to request new authorizations from January 1, 2025.

This new extension is expected to provide further impetus to hardware manufacturers, who are grappling with various compliances, slow processing speeds and various other issues related to the new authorization regime.

This follows the DGFT imposing restrictions on the import of seven items of IT hardware, including servers, computers and data processing machines, in October last year. As industry players opposed the move, the Center later allowed companies to import such items, but after seeking permission from the government to import such products.

At the time, the Center had cited national security concerns to justify the decision. In his conversation with NDTV Profit, Krishnan reiterated his stance saying that it is important to secure the manufacturing value chain and the equipment itself, as well as trace the journey of these IT hardware products himself.

The new authorization regime seems in particular to have had harmful consequences on the volume of imports. Previously, reports suggested that imports of these IT hardware products declined by 3.4% year-on-year (y-o-y) to $8.4 billion between October 2023 (the scheme’s implementation date) and March 2024.