The Hindu Business Line : Import of sensitive items down in April-Nov 2004

ALTHOUGH the country's import growth during the current fiscal has been on a double-digit trend, import of sensitive items being monitored by the Commerce Ministry has declined during the first eight months of the current fiscal.

An official release by the Commerce Ministry states that the total import of sensitive items for the period April to November was Rs 12,482 crore against Rs 12,250 crore during the corresponding period of the previous fiscal, registering a negative growth of 0.5 per cent.

While the gross import of all commodity was Rs 2,92,566 crore against Rs 2,20,294 crore, import of sensitive items constitutes only 5.7 per cent and 4.3 per cent of the gross import during last year and current year, respectively.

Stating that the major item that has contributed markedly to the decline in imports was crude palm oil and its fractions, the release noted that imports of edible oil, cotton and silk, spices and milk and milk products had declined at broad group level during the period.

Imports of fruits and vegetables, rubber, automobiles, marble and granite, tea and coffee, alcoholic beverages, small-scale industries and other products have, however, increased..

Edible oil imports declined from Rs 8,385 crore to Rs 7,415 crore.

A notable feature of edible oil import is that import of crude oil has gone down by 37 per cent and that of refined palm oil and palmolein went up by 87 per cent.

The drastic downfall in edible oil import is mainly due to huge shortfall in import of crude palm oil, which has gone down by 51 per cent.

Some of the plantation products such as tea and coffee imports had shown a growth of 127.1 per cent from Rs 43.54 crore in April-November 2003 to Rs 98.86 crore during the period under review, while rubber imports grew by 95.7 per cent from Rs 149.60 crore to Rs 292.77 crore.

Imports broadly classified as "others" but covering wheat flour, sugar, cigarette and salt zoomed from Rs 33.12 crore to Rs 653.39 crore, marking a growth of 1,872.6 per cent.

It is stated that while imports from Argentina, Malaysia, the US and Thailand have shown a decline, import of sensitive items from Indonesia, Brazil, China, Tanzania, Guinea Bissau, Japan and Sri Lanka have gone up.

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