The Telangana government is closely following the developments following the Centre’s restriction on the import of laptops, desktops and tablets.
“We don’t know the details yet. It looks like the Union Government is trying to discourage the import of these gadgets in order to promote domestic production. If that is the intention, it will definitely spur production locally,” a senior State Government official said.
“You can liken it to the spurt in smartphone production in India after duties are levied on imports. You can see foreign OMCs setting up bases or sourcing the phones from third-party manufacturers here,” he said.
Another official echoed similar views. Asked whether the move would spur domestic production, he said: “Yes. Typically, these decisions are taken to encourage local manufacturing. With the Government of India already announcing PLI for electronic hardware like PCs, it makes no sense to have both imports and domestic manufacturing,” he pointed out.
He, however, felt that the decision right now appears to be quite premature. “You can do that (barring imports) once we have enough domestic supplies.
Citing security concerns and promotion of local manufacturing as the key reasons for imposing restrictions on imports, the Directorate-General of Foreign Trade notified certain exemptions, which include allowances for foreign travellers.