ISLAMABAD, Jan 12: Pakistan's import bill soared by 47.1 per cent during the first-half of the current financial year over the same period last year.

Official figures made available to Dawn on Monday showed the import bill increased to $9.698 billion during the July-December period of the current fiscal year, as against $6.591 billion during the same period last year.

On monthly basis, the import bill rose by 38.52 per cent to $1.816 billion in December 2004, as against $1.311 billion in the same month last year. The government has fixed the import target of $16.7 billion for the fiscal year 2004-05.

The import bill target for the half year was set at around $8.35 billion. However, the target for the period was surpassed by $1.348 billion. With this increase in the first-half, it was estimated that the import bill may surpass the target set for the current fiscal year by over $3 billion.

A massive growth in imports of metal group, petroleum, machinery, agriculture and other chemical and food group resulted in increase of the import bill during the period under review.

The import bill of goods rose by 49.27 per cent to $7.882 billion during the July-November period against $5.280 billion during the same period last year. Further analysis showed that out of total imports, the duty-free imports increased by 51.4 per cent during the first-half over the same period last year.

The value of import bill of duty-free items stood at $3.395 billion during the period under review, as against $2.243 billion over the same period last year. A massive increase in duty-free imports mostly food items also resulted in decrease of the revenue collection from these commodities.

However, the import of dutiable goods increased by 45 per cent to $6.302 billion during the July-Dec period, as against $4.347 billion during the same period last year.