ISLAMABAD, Feb 12: Machinery imports ($1,944.80 million) rose by 23.07 per cent during the first seven months of the current financial year over the corresponding period of previous year.
Consequently, this category of imports accounted for 24.47 per cent of overall import bill ($7,948.59 million), as against 23.10 per cent of the same period of previous year, according to the trade data provided by the Federal Bureau of Statistics.
The two sub-categories in the machinery group, which surged the most during the period under review, were aircraft, ship and boats and road motor vehicles. While the former increased by 128pc, the latter, with imports worth $375.19 million, recorded an increase of 35.65pc.
As a result, the share of vehicles in the machinery group rose to 19.29pc, as against 17.50pc during the corresponding period of previous year. The other sub-categories whose imports went up during the period under review were: office machines including data processing equipment ($117.29 million); textile machinery ($322.35 million); construction and mining machinery ($56.08 million); and electrical machinery and apparatus ($134.99 million). These were up by 4.47pc, 9.29pc, 6.06pc and 8.75pc, respectively.
During the period under review, the imports of power generating machinery ($158.20 million) and agricultural machinery and implements ($13.22 million) decreased by 5.72pc and 34.65pc, respectively.
PETROLEUM: The country imported 4,213,173 tons of petroleum crude during July-January 2003-04, denoting an increase of 3.08pc over the same period of previous year. But the import bill ($872.80 million) on account thereof increased by 9.44pc. Nevertheless, its share in overall import showed a slight decline - from 11.66pc of the previous year to 10.98pc in the current year.
But the import bill of petroleum group, which amounted to 1,576.76 million, registered a decrease of 10.47pc. This was due to 41.10pc drop in the import of petroleum products. Their import bill during the period under review stood at $703.95 million.
The figures indicate a significant increase in import of semi- finished materials, etc., used by the domestic industry, including synthetic fibre and synthetic and artificial silk yarn. Thus, textile machinery with imports worth $154.90 million went up by 15.99pc.
Likewise, the country imported 3,46,809 tons of plastic materials and 5,613 tons of medicinal products, registering an increase of 14.46pc and 14.15pc, respectively, over the corresponding period of previous year.
These imports were in addition to the imports of raw materials under metals and miscellaneous group. Their aggregate import bill stood at $579.08 million, up by approximately 22pc over the previous year. The items imported in these categories included iron and steel scrap, aluminium wrought and worked, rubber crude, wood and cork, jute, paper and paper board, etc.
The quantity of rubber tubes and tyres imported during the period under review rose by 1.86pc to stand at 2.23 million.
AGRICULTURAL AND OTHER CHEMICALS: This group with imports worth $1,570.58 million, accounted for 19.76pc of the import bill, as against 18.38pc during the comparable period of 2002-03.
It included 849,149 tons of fertilizer, denoting a decrease of 6.18pc. The imports of insecticides were further up 23,245 tons, that is, nearly 8,000 tons more than in the corresponding period of previous year.
FOOD GROUP: The imports in this group amounted to $584.26 million, up 3.40pc. The bulk of these imports were of edible oils. Their import bill stood at $396.74 million, up by 27.88pc over the previous year. This raised their share in the food group import bill to 67.90pc as against 54.90pc of the same period of previous year.
Quantity-wise, the country imported 8,62,736 tons of soyabean oil and palm oil - that is 19.20pc more than in July-January 2002-03. The period under review also saw a growth of 10.60pc in tea, of which 67,376 tons were imported, while the import of pulses fell by half, due to increasing domestic output.