ISLAMABAD, May 21: Country’s import bill for oil and eatables fell by over four per cent in the first 10 months of this fiscal year from a year ago, suggests data issued by the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics on Tuesday.

In absolute terms, import of these two commodities fell to $15.994 billion in July-April period this year, from $16.748bn over the corresponding period of last year.

As a result of this decline, overall imports during the period under review witnessed a decline of 1.02pc.

Food groups emerged second after oil import bill in the period under review, but its bill declined by over 12.83pc to $3.632bn in July-April period this year from $4.160bn over the corresponding period of last year.

Within food group, import of milk, palm oil, sugar, pulses and all other food items witnessed a decline during the period under review.

Only tea and soybean oil witnessed an increase during the period.

Statistics showed that oil import bill reached $12.362bn in July-April period this year as against $12.5bn over the previous year, indicating a decline of 1.75pc.

Of these, import of crude oil was down by 16.73pc to $4.505bn in July-April period this year as against $5.519bn previous year.

Decline in import of crude oil shows that refineries slowed down their operations, mainly because of circular debt.

Contrary to this, import of petroleum products up by 9.95pc to $7.766bn this year as against $7.063bn last year.

Telecom import surged by 22.35pc to $1.284bn in 10 months as against $1.05bn.

Most of the increase in overall telecom imports has been contributed by mobile parts imports, which grew by 60.17pc.

Mobile phone imports declined by 9.67pc during the period under review mainly because of change in duty structure at import stage.