Many seem to think India is back to ‘license raj’, after the DGFT “restricted” imports of laptops, personal computers, tablets and other items (in HSN 8741 category) “with immediate effect” on August 3, 2023 – requiring “a valid Licence for Restricted Imports”. This is both right and wrong.

Right because MoS for MeiTY Rajeev Chandrasekhar met panicked industry representatives five days later on August 8, 2023 (post facto announcement and a freeze for three months) to assure that the licensing procedures, in the works, would be “simple and easy”. This means, there is no escaping the ‘license raj’ now – which had been supposedly dismantled in the reforms and liberalisation era starting with the mid-1980s’.

Wrong because, this isn’t the first time.

On July 30, 2020, the DGFT had “restricted” imports of 10 categories of TV sets with a declaration that the procedure for “license” would be notified separately. In fact, the DGFT says whenever it notifies “restrictions or quota or conditions on import of goods” it “may require a licence or registration”. Going by bans and restrictions on both imports and exports in the past few years, the DGFT is certain to have opened a full-fledged licensing unit now.

Wrong also because India is running a command-and-control economy. And no, India didn’t follow the de-globalisation march U.S. President Donald Trump is credited to have started (after 2016). India pioneered it (although it matters little to global trade) by re-adopting the import substitution policy of 1960s and 1970s in 2014.