ISLAMABAD, Feb 23: The country’s oil import bill soared by 18.50 per cent during the first seven months (July-Jan) of the current fiscal year to $4.992 billion from $4.212 billion the same period last year.

Official figures, compiled by the Federal Bureau of Statistics (FBS), released on Saturday showed that the import bill increased mainly because of the value-added products manufactured from petroleum.

Interestingly, the crude oil import dipped by over two per cent during the period under review despite the fact that the oil price in international market hovers around over $99 per barrel.

The finance ministry anticipates that the oil bill would be around $11 billion by end June 2008. Last year, oil import bill had crossed $7 billion.

An increase of 39.23 per cent was recorded in the import bill of products manufactured from petroleum as it stood at $2.971 billion during the first seven months of the current fiscal year against $2.134 billion over the same period last year.

However, crude petroleum import dipped marginally by 2.78 per cent to $2.02 billion during July-Jan period of the current fiscal year against $2.07 billion over the same period last year.

The statistics showed that machinery was the second group after petroleum, whose import stood at $3.897 billion in July-Jan this year, up by 3.95 per cent from $3.749 billion last year.This growth in the import bill of machinery group was the outcome of marginal increase in import of agriculture machinery, which increased by 0.11 per cent, construction machinery 6.49 per cent, electrical machinery 5.55 per cent, power generating machinery 20.6 per cent and telecom sector 3.26 per cent during the first seven months of the current fiscal year over last year.

However, textile machinery imports declined by 19.9 per cent during the period under review over last year. This shows that textile manufacturers have stopped replacement of old machinery to improve the quality of products to make them competitive in the world market.

The import bill of agriculture and other chemicals was up by 32.02 per cent to $3.22 billion during the first seven months of the current fiscal year against $2.44 billion over the same period last year.

This growth in the import bill is owing to 136.93 per cent increase in the import bill of fertilizer, followed by 32.02 per cent in medicinal products and plastic material 10.85 per cent during the period under review.

The import of food products reached $2.04 billion in the first seven months of the current fiscal year as against $1.731 billion over the same period last year. This growth was mainly due to import of wheat and flour during the period under review to meet the local shortage.