Union Minister Piyush Goyal on Thursday said the new guidelines on India's laptop import policy are still under deliberation by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology. Asked about the import authorisation system for IT hardware products and what kind of guidelines the government is looking at, Goyal said, "I think, this is still under deliberation. It is handled by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology. I am not privy to what is in their mind for the future". It is pertinent to mention here that in September this year, the government extended the approval system for the import of certain IT hardware products, including laptops and tablets, for three months till December 31. These imports stood at USD 8.4 billion in 2023-24 against the authorisation of about USD 9.5 billion. Most of these imports were coming from China. "It is clarified that the importers are allowed to apply for import authorisations, which will be valid up to December 31, 2024. ...