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ISLAMABAD, Oct 10: Pakistan imported over 0.34 million tons of edible oils during the first three months of 2002-04, signifying an increase of over 12 per cent, over the corresponding period of the previous year, according to the Federal Bureau of Statistics statistics.
As a result, the import bill on account of edible oils (soybean and palm oil) jumped by 21.13pc to $153.96 million. This boosted their share in the import bill of food group ($220.83 million) by nearly 18pc. In its turn, food group constituted 7.11pc of the total import bill ($3,105.62 million).
Among other major guzzlers of foreign exchange resources were road motor vehicles which consumed $138.07 million, that is, nearly a quarter more than the corresponding period of the previous year.
PETROLEUM CRUDE: The period under review also saw a quantum jump in the import of petroleum crude. The quantity of this item imported was 1,967,574 tons — 16.66pc more than July-September, 2002. Its import bill ($401.41 million), not unexpectedly, was thus up by 23.69pc.
The difference between the increases in quantity and cost was due to increase of $11 per ton in its price from $193.99 of the previous year to $204.1 per ton in the current year.
PULSES: Considered in terms of groups of items, food group imports recorded a decline of 9.02pc. This was attributable mainly to zero import of wheat and 73.90pc fall in imports of pulses. During the comparable period of 2002, the country had imported 170,623 tons of pulses as against only 44,530 tons during the current financial year so far.
While the steep fall in import of pulses has reduced the import bill by nearly 74pc in dollar to $13.40 million, they have increasingly gone beyond purchasing power of the people amidst persistent shortage.
MACHINERY GROUP: The import bill of this group stood at $720.27 million, up 11.39pc from the previous year. Nevertheless, its share in overall import bill, at 23.19pc, indicated some decline from previous year’s 23.28pc.
In this group, imports of power generating machinery ($75.29 million) went up by 7.95pc, textile machinery ($114.76 million) by 2.81pc, construction & mining machinery ($28.56 million) by 14.21pc, electrical machinery & apparatus ($56.58 million) by 24.55pc, and aircraft, ship and boats ($27.23 million) by 31.51pc.
Decline is found only in two items. These included office machine, including data processing equipment ($49.83 million) and agricultural machinery & implements ($6.55 million). Their imports were down by 2.59pc and 16.15pc, respectively.
AGRICULTURAL CHEMICALS: The imports of this second largest group ($621.52 million) surged by 14.42pc. In this group, the country imported 320,789 tons of fertilizers, down 5.81pc from the corresponding period. But the import bill ($63.49 million) was, due to continued increase in its international prices, was up by 1.88pc.
An amount of $40.25 million was spent on import of insecticides, which denotes an increase of 23.19pc. Their prices too are on the upward swing as indicated from their bill which shot up by 34.05pc.
This contrasts with medicinal products. Only 2,119 of these were imported at a cost of $62.774 million, which is 20.37pc more than previous year as against only 3.72pc increase in quantity.
INDUSTRIAL INPUTS: An encouraging trend is evident in respect of industrial inputs. The country imported synthetic fibres and synthetic & artificial silk yarn in textile group at a cost of $61.47 million, up 12.40pc over the corresponding period.
Besides, there was a growth of 16.06pc in the import of plastic materials (146,042 tons) and of 18.18pc in import cost ($118.96 million)
Imports of various industrial inputs under “metal” and “miscellaneous” groups also went up from $179.84 million of previous year to $221.42 million in the current year. The items imported in this group included iron and steel scrap, iron and steel, aluminium wrought & worked, rubber crude, jute, paper & paper board.
