New Delhi, Sept. 8 India’s import of 300 sensitive items grew 40.6 per cent in April-June, the first quarter of 2009-10, to Rs 13,509 crore as compared with Rs 9,608 crore during the corresponding period last year.
India classified these 300 items – mostly agricultural products – as sensitive after removing the quantitative restrictions on imports a few years ago.
The 300 sensitive items constitute about 3-6 per cent of India’s total imports. Edible oils, and fruits and vegetables accounted for nearly 66 per cent of the total import of sensitive items.
Gross import
The gross import of all commodities during same period of current year was Rs 2,48,171 crore as compared with Rs 3,34,191 crore during the same period last year. Thus import of sensitive items constitutes 2.9 per cent and 5.4 per cent of the gross imports during last year and current year respectively.
Imports of automobiles, products of small-scale industries and alcoholic beverages have shown a decline during the period.
Imports of all other items namely edible oil, fruits and vegetables (including nuts), cotton, silk, rubber, spices, marble and granite, milk & milk products, tea and coffee and foodgrains have increased during the period under reference.
In the edible oil segment, the import has increased from Rs 2,572.24 crore last year to Rs 5,546.53 crore for the corresponding period of this year.
The imports of both crude edible oil as well as refined oil have gone up by 108.2 per cent and 168.2 per cent respectively. The increase in edible oil import is mainly due to substantial increase in import of crude palm oil and its fractions.
Imports of sensitive items from Indonesia, China, Myanmar, the US, Malaysia, Ukraine, Japan, Canada, Brazil, Argentina, Benin, Cote D’ Ivoire, and Australia have gone up while those from Korea, Germany, Thailand have shown a decrease.
Source : Business Line