ISLAMABAD, Jan 10: The imports of machinery group as well as most of industrial and agricultural inputs surged during the first half of financial year 2003-04 , according to the external trade figures collected from the Federal Bureau of Statistics.

The machinery group import stood at $1597.60 million, registering a growth rate of 19.65pc. It also raised its share in overall import bill ($6609.12 million) by 1.10pc to 24.17pc.

Within this group, the import bill of others shot up by 40.17pc to $578.64 million - 36.22pc of the amount spent on machinery group imports.

Roadmotor vehicles is the group which registered the second highest growth rate of 25.58pc during the period under review. Its import bill was $290.87 million. Thus its share in machinery group shot up by 18.21pc, as compared to 17.35pc during the corresponding period of previous year.

Textile machinery group claimed $244.29 million which, however, shows a slight decline of 0.93pc.

Likewise, the imports of power generating machinery ($137.23 million) fell by 4.40pc, those of office machinery including data processing equipment ($94.81 million) by 3.57pc and those of agricultural machinery ($10.29 million) by 40.61pc.

The next highest group of imports is "petroleum group" with imports worth $1350.69 million, down by 8.22pc over the same period of previous year. The decline was in the import of petroleum products ($592.27 million) plummeting by 25.38pc.

The country imported 36,76,431 tons of petroleum crude, registering a growth of 4.85pc over July-December 2002. But the import bill ($758.42 million) rose by 11.87pc. Nevertheless, it saw its share in total import bill falling to 11.48pc, as compared to 11.71pc in the same period of 2002-03.

The textile group, aggregate of synthetic fibre, synthetic & artificial silk yarn and worn clothing, cost $126.86 million, denoting an increase of 12.93pc.

The "agricultural and other chemicals group" imports stood at $1319.84 million, up 19.90pc over the comparable period of 2003. As a result, its share in total import bill went up by 0.96pc to 19.97pc.

But the increase is accounted for partially by the chemical poisons (pesticides and herbicides) whose imports surged by as much as 62.70pc to $61.93 million, against the quantitative increase of 42.51%. The quantity of these poisons imported during the period under review was 20,706 tons.

The quantity of fertilizers imported during the period under review is reported as 7,77,468 tons, denoting a decrease of 22.41pc. But this group also includes industrial inputs such as plastic materials and medicinal products whose import in quantitative terms went up by 6.92pc and 5.77pc, respectively.

The aggregate import bill of metals and miscellaneous group, mainly constituted by industrial intermediaries stood at $463.93 million, up 21.55pc from the comparable period of previous year.

But within this group, the imports of rubber tyres and tubes (well over 2 million) increased by 2.84pc and those of paper & paper board and manufactures thereof (1,18,413 tons) by 9.94pc.

OTHERS: A major chunk (19.27pc) of the overall import is represented by Others with an import bill of $1273.31 million, denoting a growth rate of 41.20pc.