Rupee fall adds Rs 66,000 cr cost to imports in May-Dec

India was burdened with an additional Rs 66,000 crore cost of imports between May and December, 2011, due to 18% depreciation in the rupee, a study has said.

"Nearby 18% of rupee depreciation between May and December 2011 has added additional rupee cost of imports to the nation by Rs 66,000 crore despite decline in the global prices of two major imported products crude oil and thermal coal, " the study by industry body Assocham said.

The study analysed four major imported commodities— crude oil, thermal coal, fertilisers and vegetable oil.

It observed that importers had to pay an additional Rs 489.8 per barrel to import the same quantity of crude oil though the dollar price of crude had significantly declined.

While in the case of thermal coal, the importer has to pay an additional Rs 684.6 per metric tonne to import the same quantity of coal, for fertiliser Rs 3,658.3 per metric tonne and for vegetable oil imports Rs 6,941.6 metric tonne.

The benefits of the decline in crude and thermal coal prices could not be passed on to the consumers and contrary to that power and fuel became much costlier due to rupee depreciation, the study observed.

These factors have significantly contributed to fueling the inflation both for the industry and consumers, Assocham President Dilip Modi said.

The study found that the import bill of crude oil increased by Rs 5,676.7 crore when exchange rate was varying during the respective month (April-December), the import bill of crude oil decreased by Rs 4,405.9 crore when exchange rate was fixed during the respective month.

A sharp decline in the value of the rupee is bound to affect the power generation capability of power plants that are heavily dependent upon imported coal for electricity generation, it added.

Moreover, a fall witnessed in power generation capacity is likely to have an adverse affect on all the three sectors of the economy namely agriculture, industry and services. Due to rupee depreciation the import bills in the above situation differ by Rs 1,515.1 crore.

Meanwhile, the global prices of vegetable oil in November 2011 were lower than that in April 2011. Vegetable oil prices have declined by $157.6 per metric tonne in global markets.