India Put Restrictions On Colour TV Imports

Table of Contents

The government has imposed fresh restrictions on the imports of various types of colour television sets, including LCDs, as part of its ‘Atmanirbhar Bharat’
The move is especially expected to wean India off its import dependence on China for various electronic goods.

What does this restriction means?

The Directorate General of Foreign Trade on Thursday imposed restrictions on imports of nine categories of coloured TV sets.
This does not mean that imports have been banned.
What it does mean is that importers will now have to seek a no-objection certificate from the DGFT before they can bring these products into the country.

The move has been brought in as a non-duty action in the face of an existing Free Trade Agreement (FTA) that India has with countries from the Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN).
The agreement does allow these countries to export their products here at favourable or zero-duty rates and does not allow India to increase these duties.
There has also been reported concern that China has been routing its products to India through ASEAN countries.
In 2019-20, India imported $780.84 million of the TVs that have been placed in the restricted category.
ASEAN country Vietnam contributed around $428 million of these imports, while China catered to roughly $292 million.

India’s television industry is pegged at around $2 billion, of which, 36% is catered to by South East Asian countries and China, according to data from the commerce ministry.
Also many foreign TV brands, including Samsung, Xiaomi, OnePlus, Sony and LG, have already either been manufacturing the sets or their components in India or have announced plans to make them here.
For instance, Tokyo-headquartered Sony has already been manufacturing its Bravia sets in India.
Chinese firm Xiaomi has been locally manufacturing its Mi TVs since 2018, and last year announced it would be scaling up production by bringing in component manufacturers as well.

It is still unclear how the restrictions are going to play out for high-end TV products that are currently not manufactured in the country at all, as this is a non-duty measure.
However, given that the restrictions are only on finished goods and not on the components used to make them, some industry experts feel that the move could push India towards self-reliance, starting with the assembly of the final product here.

During a virtual conference on July 14, commerce minister Piyush Goyal had flagged televisions and air conditioners as areas that the government was targeting to build self-reliance.
The government has exempted duties on TV components like open cells, chips on films and printed circuit boards assembly (PCBA).
A Phased Manufacturing Programme (PMP) for televisions is also underway.