ISLAMABAD, Oct 19: Pakistan’s import bill of oil and eatables witnessed a paltry growth of 1.8 per cent during the first quarter of the current fiscal year over last year, suggested data released by the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics on Friday.

In absolute terms, import bill of these commodities reached $5.181 billion in July-Sept this year as against $5.089 billion in the corresponding period of last year.

This also led to increase of 4.49 per cent in the overall import bill to $10.852 billion in July-Sept this year as against $11.116 billion last year.

Statistics showed that oil import bill reached $4.002 billion in July-Sept period this year as against $3.830 billion over previous year, showing an increase of 4.49 per cent.

The increase was mainly driven by import of petroleum products which reached $2.713 billion in the first three months of the current fiscal year as against $2.509 billion over the same months last year, an increase of 8.15 per cent.

Import of crude oil dipped by 2.46 per cent to $1.288 billion in the first three months this year as against $1.321 billion in the previous year.

The refineries are short of funds because of circular debt. Therefore, refineries are importing directly petroleum products.

Import of motor vehicles increased by 3.44 per cent during the first three months of the current fiscal year over last year.

Import bill of whole transport group dropped by 10.49 per cent during the months under review over last year.

Import bill of eatables reached $1.179 billion in the first three months this year as against $1.259 billion over the previous year, showing a decline of 6.35 per cent. This decline is mainly driven by decrease in imports of palm oil.

Within food group, major contribution came from pulses, tea, soyabean oil and milk products.

Telecom import surged by 19.85 per cent during July-Sept period this year over last year. Of these, import of mobile phone up by 1.59 per cent and other apparatus 41.48 per cent, respectively.