ISLAMABAD, April 21: The country’s import bill for petroleum products increased by 13.04 per cent during the July-March period of the current fiscal year to $5.234 billion. The expenditure was $4.630 billion during the corresponding period last year.

The share of oil in the total reached 23.34 per cent during the period under review as against the 22.3 per cent share over the same period last year. It indicates that the share of oil import is still on top, although oil prices have declined in the international market.

Official figures released by the Federal Bureau of Statistics (FBS) here on Saturday indicated that the import of petroleum products increased by 42.96 per cent to $2.643 billion during the period under review. The amount for the corresponding period last year was $1.8 billion.

However, the import bill of crude oil declined by 6.84 per cent to $2.591 billion during the first nine months of the current fiscal year, as against $2.781 billion over the same period last year.

The oil import bill is likely to be the prime cause of the trade deficit this year because of rising consumption. However, with reduction in oil prices in international market the import of crude oil would further witness decline in the months ahead.

The second biggest component of the import bill in value was the machinery group. However, its imports increased by 11.80 per cent in July-March to $4.841 billion as against $4.330 billion over the same period last year.

The import bill of machinery mainly pushed by an increase of 42.47 per cent in power generating machinery, office machines 11.58 per cent, construction machinery 1.55 per cent and agriculture machinery 33.08 per cent.

However, the textile machinery declined by more than 34.29 per cent during the July-March period of 2006-07 over the last year.

In the telecom sector, the import of mobile phones increased by 32.29 per cent and other apparatus 10.72 per cent during the first nine months of the current fiscal year over the same period last year.

Food items import went up by 5.61 per cent to $2.113 billion during July March of 2006-07 as against $2.001 billion in the corresponding period last year. The import of milk products increased by 29.01 per cent, pulses 61.13 per cent, soyabean oil 108.08 per cent, dry fruits 24.59 per cent, palm oil 19.28 per cent, spices 3.15 per cent, and all others foot items 2.70 per cent.

However, the import of wheat declined by 74.26 pc followed by sugar 9.28 per cent, and tea 3.46 per cent during the period under review.