Norms eased for PoS devices import till March 31

The government has eased norms for import of Point of sale (PoS) terminal devices till March 31 to promote digital transactions post demonetisation.
PoS devices and sealed secondary cell/batteries containing alkaline or other non-acid electrolytes for use in portable applications have to be mandatorily registered with BIS.
As per a circular issued by CBEC, now importer of non-labelled registered PoS devices would only need to put standard logo on each carton at the port instead of each separate device.
This would have to be accompanied by the declaration to the Customs confirming that "each terminal device would be labelled after clearance but before sale/ distribution in the Indian market," a CBEC circular said.

The Customs have been asked to release the consignments of PoS devices based on the declaration along with the details of model/serial numbers of the machine inside the cartons.
Exemptions from the regulatory requirements are valid till March 31, CBEC said.

Following demonetisation of old high value notes on November 9 last year, the government had exempted excise duty on PoS devices and also goods required for their manufacturing.
These devices are also exempted from customs duty as the machines are "indispensable in a cashless digital payment system".
There is also a special permission for import of batteries and cells coming along (fitted) with the BIS registered PoS terminals.

Earlier, the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) had relaxed the import conditions of PoS terminal devices and cells/ batteries fitted in these devices.