The government has eased rules governing IT hardware imports by allowing units in the Special Economic Zones (SEZ) to freely move equipment to domestic tariff area (DTA) subject to certain conditions.
SEZs which are specifically delineated duty-free enclaves and deemed foreign territory for trade operations, duties and tariffs were earlier exempted from import restrictions on such equipment including computers, tablets and some servers.
In a notification the Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT) has said that used IT assets (laptops, desktops, monitors, printers) can be moved from SEZ by a company to DTA without a license for the purposes of further use in their DTA operations only.
However, these equipment should have been used in SEZ units for two years and should not be older than five years from the date of manufacturing.
It added that in cases where a unit is closing down its operations in SEZ, and relocating to the DTA, the import of these items is allowed without a licence subject to a condition that those products should not be older than five years from the date of manufacturing.
If a SEZ unit has second hand/used/old condition equipment and is being used for less than two years, they can not be shifted to DTA.
“Import of any used IT assets which do not fulfil” these criteria “shall be subject to licence for restricted import,” it said adding these relaxations will be applicable on the condition that no exemption has been availed from any regulatory requirements, that is Compulsory Registration Order (CRO), Restriction of Hazardous Substances (RoHS), and WPC (wireless planning and coordination) import licence,” the notification said.