India's imports of sensitive items up 34.5 percent

The total import of sensitive items stood at Rs.18,061 crore during the period under review compared to Rs.13,424 crore in the like period of last fiscal, as per data released by the commerce ministry on Thursday. Import of sensitive items constituted 4.7 percent of the gross inbound shipment during the current fiscal, and 2.7 percent for the year before.

A further look at the official data shows that import of automobiles and alcoholic beverages have shown a decline, while imports of most other sensitive items registered a rise including edible oil, pulses, food grains, fruits and vegetables, cotton, silk, rubber, spices, milk, tea and coffee.

"The imports of both crude edible oil as well as refined oil have gone up by 94.6 percent and 91.6 percent respectively. The increase in edible oil import is mainly due to substantial increase in import of crude palm oil and its fractions," said the ministry statement.

Imports of edible oil increased to Rs.7,151 crore during April-July, compared to Rs.3,683 crore in the corresponding period last year. Imports of sensitive items from Indonesia, Myanmar, the US, Malaysia, Canada, Ukraine, Brazil, Argentina, Australia and Thailand went up, while those from China, South Korea, Japan, Germany and Czech Republic fell.