Protectionism diverts attention from enhancing industry competitiveness

It is a throwback to the pre-liberalisation days when the government preferred to restrict imports with a view to protect inefficient domestic producers

From the beginning of next month, the imports of laptops, tablets, all-in-one personal computers, ultra small form factor computers and servers falling under HSN 8471 would be allowed for most commercial purposes only against import authorisations for restricted items issued by the government. Top government officials have assured that import authorisations for such items will be issued on automatic basis against applications filed online but the criteria that will be adopted for grant of such authorisations are yet to be notified.

On the third of August this year, the commerce ministry issued notification no. 23/2013 changing the import policy for