ISLAMABAD, Feb 17: Edible oils import bill went up by 26.40 per cent to nearly $304 million during the first seven months of 2002-03.
According to the foreign trade statistics made available by the Federal Bureau of Statistics (FBS), the edible oils accounted for about 57 per cent of imports of food group as against 48.40pc in July-January 2002-03. As regards quantity, over 7,06,000 tons of soybean and palm oils were imported by the country. This is 20,000 tons more than in the same period of previous year.
The quantity of palm oil alone imported during the period under review was 683,755 tons, as against 664,678 imported last year. Intriguingly, the price of palm oil during the current year averaged $427.73 per ton, nearly 41.38pc more than the average price prevailing during the previous year.
Food group with imports worth $564.36 million, representing 8.24pc of the total import bill during July-January of current year which totalled $6.85 billion (Rs403.97 billion). But in the food group is also included the 747.913 million tons of wheat imported for re-export to Afghanistan at a cost of $28.71 million, reducing this group’s share in overall import bill.
The category which eclipsed all others in the import bill was the petroleum group on import of which the country spent $1.747 billion, more than a quarter of the total import bill. Its impact was, however, reduced by the export of petroleum products, including petroleum crude, fetching about $155 million.
The country imported over 4 million tons of petroleum crude during the period under review, 9.16pc more than during the same period of previous year. It accounted for 11.61pc of the total import bill, indicating a decline of about 1.11pc from previous year.
Machinery group continued to show stridency with imports worth $1.57 billion, indicating a growth rate of 42.08pc in one year. As a constituent of import bill, it raised its share by 3.64pc to 22.97pc.
In this group, roadmotor vehicles stand out as the second highest guzzlers of foreign exchange. The FBS figures show that the country spent as much as $266.48 million on their import, which is about 60pc more than the previous year.
On top was textile machinery whose import consumed $288.03 million, up 81.95pc from previous year. Import of power generating machinery ($163.07 million) and electrical machinery and apparatus ($122.19 million) also recorded increases of 10.65pc, and 84.11pc, respectively.
Another major group is “agricultural and other chemicals group” which, with imports worth $1.23 billion, showed an increase of 11.89pc over the previous year. In this group, the country imported a little over one million tons of fertilizers. Lower by 3.44pc than in previous year though, their import bill was up by 22.49pc. In this group, plastic materials imports increased in value by 21.52pc.
Insecticides and medicinal imports were decreased by 19.12pc and 4.26pc respectively.
Textile group ($132.90 million), which includes synthetic fibre, synthetic & artificial silk yarn and worn clothing, registered an increase of 29pc in value.
Another group which indicated some improvement in industrial activity was the metals group whose imports moved up by 10.80pc. In this group, iron and steel and aluminium registered increases of 14.38pc and 21.66pc, respectively.