Imports of sensitive items soar 34.5% in April-July

NEW DELHI: A near-doubling of imports of edible oil in the first four months of the fiscal pushed up imports of the sensitive items by 34.5%. While India imported less of automobiles, liquor and products manufactured by the small scale sector, import of all other items in the list of about 415 products went up during the April-July 2009 period.

According to an official release, total import of the sensitive items during the period was worth Rs 18,061 crore as compared to Rs 13,424 crore during the corresponding period of last year showing an increase of 34.5%. The share of sensitive items in total imports went up to 4.7% from 2.7% in the comparable period of the previous year.

Edible oil imports at Rs 7,150 crore recorded an increase of 94% in April-July 2009 with both crude (at Rs 6109 crore) and refined (at Rs 1041 crore) growing by more than 90%.

Significant growth has taken place in the import of milk and milk products, especially in butter oil and other fats derived from milk, which grew by over 70% to Rs 86.36 crore during the four months period this fiscal compared to the same period in the previous year.

Rubber imports, too, increased sharply by 118.5% to Rs 614 crore during the period, while food grains imports went up by 96.7% to Rs 7.7 crore. Imports of automobiles, on the other hand, went down by almost 50% to Rs 339 crore. Alcoholic beverages also registered a decline of 45% in imports in the April-July 2009 period to Rs 79 crore.

Imports of sensitive items from Indonesia, Myanmar, United States of America, Malaysia, Canada, Ukraine, Brazil, Argentina, Benin, Cote D��� Ivoire, Australia and Thailand posted an increase, while those from China, Korea, Japan, Germany and Czech Republic have shown a decrease.