ISLAMABAD, Sept 27: The import bill of petroleum products recorded a hefty growth during the first two months (July-Aug) of the fiscal year 2006-07, over the same months last year.

The total import bill touched $4.985 billion in July-August 2006 as against $4.230 billion in the same months last year, indicating an increase of 17.83 per cent. The statistics showed that the State Bank of Pakistan monetary policy had helped a lot to control the inflow of importable products.

But this decline in the import bill occurred mainly due to a fall in import of machinery of 10 per cent, around two per cent overall decline in transportation machinery including vehicles, a 16 per cent dip in food items import, and a 21 per cent decrease in agriculture implements during the period under review.

Official figures released by the Federal Bureau of Statistics (FBS) here on Wednesday showed the import bill of petroleum products alone rose by 53.53 per cent to $1.549 billion during the first two months of the current fiscal as against $1.008 billion in the same months last year.

In total POL imports, the share of petroleum crude rose by 9.18 per cent to $646.835 million during the months under review as against $592.435 million in the corresponding months last year.

The statistics indicated that the only leading contributor to the highest trade deficit was the bill of POL, which has been enhanced due to a persistent rise in oil price in the international market.

According to the FBS, the second biggest component of the import bill in value was machinery group. However, it declined 9.65 per cent during July-August 2006, over last year.

The decline in this group was mainly due to a 24.94 per cent negative growth in import of textile machinery, followed by 11.50 per cent decline in import of telecom apparatus, and 31.57 per cent fall in agriculture machinery and implements. However, the import of construction machinery rose by 33.57 per cent and electrical machinery and apparatus by 31.81 per cent, power generating machinery by 51.92 per cent and office machinery by 3.64 per cent.

Food items import declined by 15.99 per cent to $342.140 million during July-Aug 2006 as against $407.269 million in the corresponding months last year. This decline in food items occurred due to a 1.81 per cent decline in milk products, followed by 27.84 in dry fruits, 54.5 per cent in soybean oil, and 30.69 per cent in palm oil.

However, the import of sugar rose by 9.68 per cent, pulses 69.10 per cent and wheat un-milled 100 per cent.

According to the statistics, the import of metal groups had declined by 11.90 per cent during the July-August period of the current fiscal year, over the last year. In this group, the import of gold has declined by 43.27 per cent, followed by a 49.12 per cent fall in iron and steel scrap and 1.15 per cent in iron and steel.

The agriculture and other chemical group also declined by 21.12 per cent during the fist two months of the current fiscal year, over the last year. In the group the import of fertilizer declined by 13.05 per cent, insecticides by 35.78 per cent, plastic materials by 17.32 per cent and medicinal products by 8.66 per cent.