Imports of sensitive items in April-Dec up 8%

India's import of sensitive items, including foodgrains and milk products, has gone up by 8.1% to Rs 52,492 crore during the April-December period of the current fiscal, from Rs 48,548 crore a year ago.

Foodgrains' import soared to Rs 226.54 crore during the first nine months of this fiscal from a mere Rs 41.49 crore in the year-ago period, according to the latest official data.

Items such as foodgrains, automobiles, milk and beverages fall in the sensitive category and the import of these are monitored by the government to see if there is any adverse impact on the domestic industry.

Milk and dairy products' import increased to Rs 724.17 crore and that of automobiles rose to Rs 1,659.28 crore during the period under review from Rs 232.83 crore and Rs 806.23 crore, respectively in the year-ago period.

During April-December, 2010-11, import of items such as alcoholic beverages and rubber also increased by 48.2% and 109.9%, respectively.
As per the data, the increase in import of edible oils was 10.8% to Rs 20,791.5 crore over the year ago period. Import of products of small-scale industries like umbrella, locks, toys and glassware, too, went up by 54.6% to Rs 1,127.97 crore over the same period last year.

"The increase in edible oil import is mainly due to substantial increase in import of crude palm oil and its fractions," it said.

However, import of pulses, and cotton and silk contracted by 26.1% and 26.2% during the period. No reason was disclosed for the contraction.

Food inflation is hovering at 9.42% for the week ended March 5, due to rising prices of commodities like fruits, milk and protein-based items.

Import of sensitive items amounted to 4.7% of the country's total import during the period.

The gross import of all commodities during April-December, 2010-11 was Rs 11,26,513 crore as compared to Rs 9,91,605 crore during the same period last year.

Import of sensitive items from countries such as the US, UK, China, Korea, Argentina, Germany, Thailand, New Zealand have gone up, while those from Myanmar, Brazil, Japan and Canada decreased during the period under review, the data added.