India's import of sensitive items, including foodgrains and milk products, has gone up by 8.1 per cent to Rs 52,492 crore (Rs 524.92 billion) during the April-December period of the current fiscal, from Rs 48,548 crore (Rs 485.48 billion) a year-ago.
Foodgrains' import soared to Rs 226.54 crore (Rs 2.26 billion) during the first nine months of this fiscal from a mere Rs 41.49 crore (Rs 414.9 million) 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 (Rs 7.24 billion) and that of automobiles rose to Rs 1,659.28 crore (Rs 16.59 billion) during the period under review from Rs 232.83 crore (Rs 2.32 billion) and Rs 806.23 crore (Rs 8.06 billion), 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 per cent and 109.9 per cent, respectively.
As per the data, the increase in import of edible oils was 10.8 per cent to Rs 20,791.5 crore (Rs 207.91 billion) over the year ago period.
Import of products of small-scale industries like umbrella, locks, toys and glassware, too, went up by 54.6 per cent to Rs 1,127.97 crore (Rs 11.27 billion) 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 per cent and 26.2 per cent during the period.
No reason was disclosed for the contraction. Food inflation is hovering at 9.42 per cent 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 per cent 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 (Rs 11,265.13 billion) as compared to Rs 9,91,605 crore (Rs 9916.05 billion) 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.
