Refined oil pushes sensitive items’ import 33%

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New Delhi: Import of sensitive items registered a 33% increase in rupee terms during April-December 2008 against the same period last fiscal.

Riding on a 132% jump in the import of refined oil, 79.4% increase in motor vehicles’ parts and accessories as well as 52.6% rise in alcoholic beverages, import of sensitive items during April-December 2008 rose to Rs 33,863.9 crore, from Rs 25,454.5 crore during the corresponding period of last year. In the April-December 2007 period, the increase was 11.7%, while in April-December 2006, it was a 11.7% jump. However, the same recorded a fall of 16% in April-December 2005.

Meanwhile, the gross import of all commodities during the same period of the current fiscal was Rs 10,03,947 crore, a 44.8% increase from Rs 6,93,445 crore last year. Thus import of sensitive items constitutes 3.7% and 3.4% of the gross imports during last year and current year respectively.

Ramesh Chand, national professor, National Centre for Agricultural Economic and Policy (NCAP), said, “a large part of this increase can be attributed to the depreciation of rupee vis-a-vis the US dollar. If you measure the import in rupee terms, obviously it shows an increase. Also, there has been a sharp fall in global commodity prices after June 2008 and it made imports more attractive.”

There has been an over 50% fall in global commodity prices since June 2008. Rupee value against the dollar has declined by almost 30% since January 2008.

However, imports of food grains have shown a decline of 98.6% at broad group level during the period. Automobile imports during April-June 2008 had shown an 83.8% increase, while in the April-September 2008, it was 65.2% jump and in the April-December 2008 period the increase was 41%. Similarly, imports of motor vehicles’ parts and accessories during April-September 2008 witnessed an 82.7% increase and during the April-December 2008 period it was 79.4% increase.

“So, there is a declining trend, even though there is an overall increase in imports,” pointed out Dilip Chenoy, director general, Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM). He added “this reflects an increase in demand that the local manufacturers could not meet and also the rupee depreciation factor.”