August 02, 2006	Wednesday	Rajab 6, 1427

ISLAMABAD, Aug 1: The import bill of petroleum products, machinery and agriculture implements recorded a hefty growth during the last fiscal year. Official figures available with Dawn showed that the import bill of petroleum products alone rose by 66.59pc to $6.662bn during 2005-06 as against $3.999bn a year ago. The share of oil in total country’s import bill rose to 23.30pc.

In total POL imports, the share of petroleum crude rose by 76.56pc to $3.793bn during the FY06 as against $2.148 billion in 2004-05.

This showed that the import bill of oil products almost doubled during 2005-06 due to record high oil prices above $75 per barrel in the intentional market.

With this raise in oil prices, the total import bill reached $28.581bn as against $20.598bn in FY05, indicating an increase of 38.76pc.

It had widened the trade deficit to $12.112bn during the year as against $6.207bn the previous year. The export remained at $16.468bn during FY06.

According to the Federal Bureau of Statistics (FBS), the second biggest component of the import bill was of machinery group which recorded a growth of 34.33pc to $7.949bn during 2005-06 as against $5.918bn the pervious year.

The import of road motor vehicles registered a robust growth of 50.94pc in value. The import bill of agriculture implements increased by 82.74pc, electrical machinery and apparatus 38.20pc, power generating machinery 22.95pc, construction and mining machinery 32.23pc and office machines by 3.78pc. However, the import of textile machinery declined by 16.92pc during the year under review.

The import of consumer goods rose by 37.15pc to $1.932bn during 2005-06 as against $1.408bn the last year.

The import of wheat rose by 42.76pc, sugar 496.39pc, dry fruits 35.73pc, milk products 62.63pc and pulses by 36.73pc. However, tea imports declined by 1.07pc.

The import of metal group increased by 47.82pc to $1.801bn and agriculture and chemicals up by 13.92pc to $4.106bn in the FY06 compared to the previous year’s figures.