NEW DELHI: The commerce ministry's arm DGFT is working on formulating criteria to provide licences in a smooth way to importers of laptops and computers, an official said.

As the government has decided to impose import curbs on these electronic devices, importers would have to seek a license from the Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT) from November 1.

"We are working on the licensing issues. The aim is to make it smooth to get a license for imports," the official said.

In similar cases earlier, criteria like past performance of a company have been used for granting licences.

The import curbs will help India to keep a close watch on the locations from where the products are coming.

The decision will also spur domestic manufacturing at a time when India has identified electronics manufacturing as a key priority area for its future growth ambitions and is hoping to attract investments from global biggies looking to diversify their operations outside China.

The PLI (production-linked incentive) scheme for IT hardware has attracted 38 companies, including Foxconn Group, HP, Dell and Lenovo. They have applied for incentives under the scheme for manufacturing laptops, PCs and servers.

Think tank Global Trade Research Initiative (GTRI) has stated that the government should announce objective criteria for importers to seek licences for inbound shipments of these items to meet domestic demand. GTRI co-founder Ajay Srivastava said that personal computers (PCs), laptops, and tablets "connect us to the world of education, business, entertainment and everything else" and therefore the government must take all steps to avoid short supply and market disruption.