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The data provided by commerce and industry minister Piyush Goyal showed that the trade deficit, difference between import and exports, between India and China has touched $51.5 billion during April-October this fiscal. The deficit during 2021-22 had jumped to $73.31 billion as compared to $44.03 billion in 2020-21. According to the data, imports during April-October this fiscal stood at $60.27 billion, while exports aggregated at $8.77 billion.

Goyal said that the merchandise exports from India to China have increased from $11.93 billion in 2014-15 to $21.26 billion in 2021-22, showing an increase of 78.2 per cent over the last six years. On the other hand, imports from China have increased from $60.41 billion in 2014-15 to $94.57 billion in 2021-22. He noted that the trade deficit with China in 2004-05 was $1.48 billion, which increased to $36.21 billion in 2013-14, an increase of 2,346 per cent. He added that against this massive increase, the trade deficit with China has since increased by only 100 per cent to $73.31 billion in 2021-22.

He highlighted that most of the goods imported from China are capital goods, intermediate goods and raw materials and are used for meeting the demand of fast expanding sectors like electronics, telecom and power in India. He said ‘the rise in import of electronic components, computer hardware and peripherals, telephone components, etc. can be attributed to transforming of India into a digitally empowered society and a knowledge economy. India's dependence on imports in these categories is largely due to the gap between domestic supply and demand.’