Wednesday, January 29, 2014: The Department of Electronics and Information Technology (DeitY), Government of India, has recently carried out amendments to its Electronics and Information Technology Goods (requirements for compulsory registration) Order, 2012, pertaining to customs clearances for samples.
As per the changes, DeitY has removed the quantity restrictions for samples imported for the purposes of testing, research and development and demonstration. Hence, there would be no limit on the number of units being imported for these purposes.
In May 2013, DeitY had issued the following exemptions, and regularised these through amendments made in June and September 2013:
Exemption up to five numbers per model for testing, R&D and demonstration purposes
Exemption for the highly specialised equipment (HSE) category, which also lists the criteria for declaring an electronic product as HSE
DeitY has now stated in its notice that “Highly specialised equipment (HSE) criteria have been sufficiently defined, and customs may evolve a process so that the field officers of customs do not insist on NOC (no objection certificate) from DeitY for the goods qualifying under these criteria.”
With effect from December 2013, it has been decided that DeitY will not issue any NOC letters when any of the above exemptions are claimed.
However, cases that would demand technical clarifications beyond the different criteria will have to be referred to DeitY. But the department would entertain such requests only from the customs authorities and not directly from the applicants.
The order has not put any restriction on goods directly imported by end users for personal use.
Requirements for compulsory registration order 2012
Under the order, DeitY has mandated 15 categories of electronics items under the compulsory registration scheme of the Department of Consumer Affairs based on their compliance to Indian safety standards. The order envisages manufacturers, importers, sellers and distributors of the notified goods to conform to the specified standards, and get registration numbers from BIS after testing the products at BIS-recognised labs.
