ISLAMABAD, Aug 23: The country’s import bill of petroleum products has increased by 87.41 per cent to $1.287 billion in July, 2008 against $0.686 billion in the same month last year.

Official figures released by Federal Bureau of Statistics (FBS) here on Saturday indicated that the import of products manufactured from petroleum increased by 135.62 per cent to $752.618 million in July 2008 against $319.417 million over the same month last year.

However, the import bill of petroleum crude increased by 45 per cent to $534.625 million during the month under review as against $367.438 million over the same month last year.

The second biggest component of the import bill in value was the machinery group. However, its imports increased by 11.1 per cent in July 2008 to $593.913 million as against $534.567 million over the same month of the last year.

The import bill of machinery was mainly pushed by an increase of 48.24 per cent in power generating machinery, office machines 2.24 per cent, construction machinery 55.84 per cent and other machinery 14.7 per cent.

However, the textile machinery declined by more than 42.24 per cent during the month under review over the last year.

In the telecom sector, the import of mobile phones decreased by 38.55 per cent. However, import of other apparatus increased by 15.95 per cent during the first month of the current fiscal year over the same month last year.

This shows that the introduction of Rs600 as additional tax on import of mobile phones has increased the cost, which resulted into restriction in imports of mobile phones.

Food items import was up by 8.68 per cent to $239.088 million in July 2008 as against $219.994 million in the corresponding month of the last year. The import of milk products increased by 88.92 per cent, wheat 473.69 per cent, pulses 76.54 per cent, tea 52.09 per cent, and spices 40.38 per cent.

However, the import of sugar declined by 65.08 per cent followed by palm oil 6.69 per cent, soyabean oil 92.30 per cent and dry fruits 12.01 per cent during the period under review over the last year.