By Tanveer Ahmed

KARACHI: Country’s oil import bill swelled to $7.416 billion during the first nine months (July-March) of the current fiscal year, reflecting 40.52 percent growth, figures released by Federal Bureau of Statistics shows. The oil import stood at over $5.227 billion during the same period of last year.

The import of manufactured petroleum products registered 48.52 percent growth to $3.989 billion during the period under review against $2.686 billion in the corresponding period of previous year.

Crude petroleum oil import soared to $3.426 billion during July-March period of the current fiscal year, up by 32.23 percent against $2.591 billion during the same period of last year.

During the month of March this fiscal year, oil imports grew phenomenally by over 100 percent to $1.076 billion compared to $535.841 million in the same month of last year

This growth is attributed to the increase in import of manufactured petroleum products, which grew by over 86 percent and an increase of 120 percent in crude oil import. However, oil imports declined by almost 20 percent during the month of February over preceding month of March when $1.344 billion worth of oil products were imported.

According to analysts, increase in the oil import bill has been caused by skyrocketing prices of petroleum products in international market, which at the moment are not showing any signs of declining and analysts forecast further increase in imports of oil products in the coming months.

International oil prices hit $118 per barrel mark on Tuesday and during the month of March prices remained above $100 per barrel in the international market. “If the prices stayed at the same level during the remaining part of this fiscal year, oil import bill will balloon further”, they added.

Apart from price factor, the quantity of oil imports has also been contributing in swelling import bill, as during the period under review, quantity of oil products showed substantial growth because of growing needs domestically, especially for electricity generations.

Last year, oil import bill crossed $7 billion and analysts predict that it would be settling over $10 billion, if the prices in the international market did not fall in near future.

Machinery is the second largest component in the import bill after petroleum as its import stood at $5.146 billion in July-March of this fiscal year, up by 5.86 percent from $4.861 billion last year.

This growth in the import bill of machinery was due to over 43 percent growth in the import of power generation machinery, 16.85 percent growth in construction and mining machinery, 12.97 percent growth in electrical machinery and apparatus and 4.10 percent in other machinery.

Import of office machinery dropped by 6.32 percent, textile machinery by 19.65 percent while import of telecom and agriculture machinery and implements remained flat.

The import bill of agriculture and other chemicals was up 35.14 percent to $4.213 billion in July-March of current fiscal year compared to $3.117 billion in the corresponding period of last year. In this group, over 190 percent growth was seen in fertilizers, over 12 percent in plastic material and over 27 percent in medical products.

The import of food items surged to $3.036 billion in the first nine months of current fiscal year as against $2.125 billion during the same period of last year, showing a growth of over 42 percent. This growth was mainly due to import of wheat, soyabean oil and palm oil.

The import bill of transport was down by 16 percent to $1.581 billion during the said period from $1.887 billion in the same period of previous year.

The total import bill reached $27.962 billion during the first nine months of current financial year, reflecting a growth of over 24 percent as compared to $22.41996 billion in the corresponding period of last year.

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