Planes by weight.

"India has proposed curbing the import of private jets and helicopters as the South Asian nation seeks to plug a widening trade deficit, according to a document from the country's aviation ministry seen by Bloomberg. Any import of planes weighing more than 15,000 (33,100 pounds) unladen as well as turbo jets are also 'non-essential' and shouldn't be brought in from abroad as is done now, the letter dated Dec. 6 stated." FE. "India's October merchandise trade deficit widened to $26.91 billion from $25.71 billion in September" as "India's merchandise exports fell to $29.78 billion from $35.45 billion in September." ET. "The merchandise trade deficit for April-October 2022 was estimated at USD 173.46 billion." The cumulative trade gap with China since the early 2000s has exceeded $1 trillion. The Hindu. "In 2021, annual two-way trade crossed $100 billion for the first time, reaching $125.6 billion, with India's imports accounting for $97.5 billion, pegging the imbalance at close to $70 billion." India always runs a trade deficit, which rose to a high of $122.91 billion in 2012. macrotrends. A huge chunk of this because "India's crude oil import bill surged 76% to $90.3 billion in the first half of 2022-23 even as the total import quantity increased by 15% to 116.6 million tonnes." HT. Even as the international price of crude oil increased, government taxes added to the price at the pump, increasing the cost of transport. Even after the reduction of excise duty, it still adds Rs 19.90 to one liter of petrol. godigit.com. Despite the almost complete lockdown due to Covid-19 in 2020, wikipedia, the government collected around Rs 3.72 trillion in taxes on petroleum products. In fact, "Since the financial year 2020-21 - the first to be completely impacted by the pandemic - the share of indirect taxes in the Center's total tax collections has risen above 50%." TOI. While direct taxes are linked to earnings, indirect taxes are paid by both rich and poor. "Four out of five smartphones sold in the June quarter in India were made by Chinese companies, according to industry reports." BI. "India's laptop imports surged to $5.24 billion between January and September 2022, of which $3.82 billion worth of laptops came from China alone." The Wire. "According to data, over the last five years, every three in four laptops that India has imported have come from China alone." Because they are a higher quality with lower prices despite having to be transported a distance of 2845 km (1768 miles) from Chingqinq, prokerala. com, which manufactures the largest number of laptops in the world. chongqinq.info. High taxes make it worthwhile for importers to under-invoice what they import. "In the first nine months of 2022, China claimed to have exported goods worth $89.66 billion. Data from India's ministry of commerce and trade, however, put the figure at just $7918," wrote Sumant Banerji. Plus the huge salaries of numerous tax officials. Just reduce taxes. Increase exports. Save huge on salaries. No-brainer.