ISLAMABAD - The country’s oil import bill had surged by eight per cent in one-year period, as it has recorded at  $2.792 billion during the first two months (July-August) of the current financial year 2012-13 against $2.587 billion of the same period last year.
According to the figures of Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS), oil import bill has recorded $2.792 billion during the July-August period of the year 2012-13 against the $2.587 billion of July-August period of 2011-12, which indicated an increase of over 7.94 per cent in one year.
The main reason behind higher import bill is soaring oil and food commodities prices in international market, said the trade analysts. According to the figures of Pakistan Bureau of Statistics, the break-up of oil import bill revealed that import of crude oil was slightly decreased by 3.34 per cent to $837 million during the period under review against the $865 million over the corresponding period of the last year. On the other side, import of petroleum products reached $1.955 billion in the months of July-August, up by 13.61 per cent from $1.721 billion over the corresponding period of the last year.
Meanwhile, according to the figures, the import of food items witnessed a decline of 9.02 per cent in one-year period and reached to $818 million in July-August period of the year 2012-13 against the $899 million in July-August period of the year 2011-12.
According to the data, import bill of milk products was up by 20.78 per cent, import of tea decreased by 24.72 per cent, import of spices decreased by 8.71 per cent, soyabean oil’s imports has enhanced by 22.23 per cent, palm oil import decreased by 12.22 per cent, sugar import declined by 78.34 per cent, import of pulses went up by 11.30 per cent and import of all other food items decreased by 12.73 per cent during the period under review.
Apart from oil and food imports, the country imported machinery worth of $897 million, transport group imports stood at $314 million, textile group, $374 million, agricultural and other chemicals, $972 m0illion, metal group, $455 million, miscellaneous group imports recorded at $129 million and all other items imports recorded at $595 million during July-August period of 2012-13 against July-August period of 2011-12.