ISLAMABAD, May 7: The Pakistan-India trade which favoured Pakistan till the year 1998 is now tilted heavily in favour of India.

Official statistics made available to Dawn showed that Pakistan had achieved a trade surplus of $27.807 million with India during the year 1998-99. But in the last three years of military rule, the surplus has turned into a deficit with an average of 130 per cent per annum.

Pakistan exports to India have constantly witnessed a decline during the last three and a half years while Indian exports to Islamabad registered a boost.

Trade with India has turned into a deficit of $73.736 million in the year 1999-2000; $179.689 million in the year 2000-01 and $137.294 million in 2001-02 respectively. And the trade deficit with India has stood at $ 67.029 million during the first eight months of the current financial year.

Elaborating on the decrease in the volume of trade deficit with India, the officials said that it occurred due to the suspension of air, train and bus service in December 2001 which resulted into lower trades between the two neighbouring countries.

Further break-up of the statistics showed that Pakistan exported good worth $173.652 million to India during the year 1998-99, while it imported goods worth $145.845 million during the same period.

During the financial year, Pakistan exported goods worth $53.639 million against its imports of $127.375 million from India during the same period.

And India’s exports to Pakistan rose to $235.086 million during the year 2000-01 against imports of $55.397 million from Pakistan during the same period. While Pakistan’s exports to India further decreased to $49.227 million in the year 2001-02 against the imports of Rs186.521 million from India during the same period.

During the first eight months of the current financial year, Pakistan’s exports stood at $39.903 million against imports of $106.932 million from India during the same period this year.

Product wise major exports to India showed that Islamabad exported $17.684 million worth fruits and vegetables during the first eight months of this current financial, which registered a slight decrease over the same period of last year. Pakistan also exported $1.833 million worth crude vegetable materials to India during the same period.

The export of cotton yarn stood at $0.475 million to India during the same period under review, which registered a marginal decline this year; export of cotton fabrics (woven) stood at $1.497 million.