ISLAMABAD, July 11: Machinery group imports mounted to $2,839.12 million during the financial year 2002-03, recording an increase of 28.61 per cent over the previous year.

Thus they raised claim on the total import bill ($12,185 million) to 23.30 per cent as against 21.35 per cent in 2001-02, according to the external trade data available from the Federal Bureau of Statistics.

In this group, a major chunk — over $1,161 million — was consumed in import of textile machinery ($524.79 million) and roadmotor vehicles ($492.37 million). Compared to previous year, their imports were up by 28.97pc and 49.24pc, respectively.

Apart from others of the machinery group, these two categories were the top imports. The others leap-frogged with an import bill of $929.54 million, up 43.55pc from previous year. As a result, their share in machinery group imports stood at 32.74pc as against 29.33pc in 2001-02.

Power generating machinery is another item increasingly strident in its claim upon the country’s foreign exchange resources. Its import rose 28.95pc to $262.79 million.

Among other major categories in machinery group, imports of electrical machinery ($211.58 million) and agricultural machinery and implements ($34.63 million) surged by 65.24pc and 115.60pc, respectively, while office machines, including data processing equipment ($208.83 million), construction and mining machinery ($97.965 million), declined by 6.91pc and 17.38pc, respectively.

It is, however, the petroleum group which has the highest import bill ($3,060.93 million), increasing by 9.05pc over the previous year. Nevertheless, the decline in the quantity of petroleum products and petroleum crude (8.52pc and 4.88pc, respectively) reduced this group’s share in total import bill by 2.03pc to 25.12pc.

The country imported 6,792,171 tons of petroleum crude for $1,366.51 million accounting for 11.90pc of total import bill as against 11.90pc in 2001-02.

The third largest group is “agricultural and other chemicals” with imports worth $2166.22 million. Its imports shot up by 15.88pc in 2002-03. The largest import item in this group is chemical fertilizer. In quantity, its import stood at 1,294,942 tons — 6.21pc more than last year.

But the import bill of fertilizer was up by 36.00pc in dollars. This was attributable to sharp increase in its price in the international market of over $40 per ton to $185.08 per ton.

Insecticides are also included in this group of which 22,304 tons were imported, a quantity 35.68pc lower than previous year with import bill ($58.14 million), which dropped by 32.29pc.

According to FBS data, the country imported 517,960 tons of plastic materials, denoting an increase of 13.11pc. The cost of such import was $422.95 million, up 19.92pc from previous year. Besides, medicinal products included in this group were imported at a cost of $218.02 million, registering a decline of 4.43pc, although in quantity (9,000 tons), it shows a decline of 7.41pc.

Significant was the increase in the import of raw materials and industrial inputs spread in the groups — textile group, metal group and miscellaneous group. Their aggregate import bill during the period under review stood at $1,030.50 million, up 13.65pc over the previous year. Nevertheless, their share in total import bill remained stuck at 8.46pc, as against 8.77pc in 2001-02.

The miscellaneous group also includes rubber tyres and tubes whose import continued to be on an upswing. The number of tyres and tubes imported in 2002-03 exceeded 3.8 million, registering an increase of 20.42pc with an import bill $78.02 million that was lower by 17.21pc.

FOOD GROUP: This group’s share remained almost unchanged in 2002-03 — 7.96pc. But not the edible oils. Their imports, at 12,81,274 tons, surpassed those of 2001-02 by 85,667 tons (7.07pc). The data, however, shows a dramatic increase in their import bill which stood at $580.04 million, up 47.68pc from the previous year. As a result their contribution to food group import bill shot up by 12.10pc to 59.84pc.