ISLAMABAD, July 17: Pakistan’s oil import bill surged to $11.38 billion in 2007-08, up by more than 55 per cent over the $7.33 billion a year before, mainly due to higher international prices and increased consumption.

Official figures released by the Federal Bureau of Statistics for the year suggest that Pakistan had to pay $4 billion (Rs270 billion) more in financial year 2007-08 than in the previous year. The oil import bill was 55.14 per cent higher than in 2006-07 in value terms.

The import of petroleum products in 2007-08 cost $6.158 billion against $3.73 billion in 2006-07, showing an increase of 65 per cent, while crude imports surged to $5.22 billion, an increase of 45 per cent over the figure of $3.6 billion in 2006-07. The consumption of petroleum products was up about 19 per cent in 2007-08 and stood at 10 million tons compared with 8.6 million tons in 2006-07. Likewise, crude imports stood at 8.6 million tons compared with 8.2 million tons in 2006-07, showing a 5.2 per cent increase in consumption.

The government had estimated the oil imports to stay at $8.8 billion in the 2007-08 budget. But it had to pay about $2.6 billion (Rs170 billion) more than the budget estimates because the estimates had been based on an expected international crude price of $70 per barrel.

Petroleum emerged as the largest contributor to the country’s total import bill of $39.97 billion in fiscal year 2007-08.

This was followed by machinery group with imports at $7.4 billion, which was 10.32 per cent higher than the $6.7 billion machinery imports in 2006-07. This included $2.2 billion imports of telecom sector, including mobiles phones, and $1.18 billion of power generating machinery.

Agriculture sector imports stood at $5.83 billion in 2007-08, showing an increase of 32 per cent from the $4.4 billion in the previous year.

Fertiliser imports in the agriculture sub-sector were up by 98 per cent and stood at $890 million compared with $450 million a year ago while import of plastic materials stood at $1.3 billion, showing an increase of about 14 per cent.

The food sector stood fourth in 2007-08 as food imports increased by 53.5 per cent to $4.64 billion compared to $2.74 billion in 2006-07.

Palm oil imports stood at $1.6 billion in 2007-08, which was 76 per cent higher than $900 million in 2006-07.

Transport sector’s imports in 2007-08 amounted to $2.25 billion, showing a decline of 6.04 per cent, compared with $2.4 billion in 2006-07.

The import of metals stood at $2.54 billion, compared with $2.34 billion of the previous year, showing an increase of 8.4 per cent. Textile imports stood at $2.35 billion in 2007-08 against $1.57 billion a year before, showing an increase of about 50 per cent.