IMPORT OF SENSITIVE ITEMS: APRIL-JULY 2002 : PRESS NOTE

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The total import of 300 sensitive tariff lines for the period April-July 2002 has been Rs. 4477 crore against Rs. 3588 crore for the corresponding period of last year thereby showing a growth of 24.8 %. However, this growth is almost entirely due to significant increase in the import of crude palm oil & Soya bean oil. But for this import of all other sensitive items together shows negative growth.

Imports of food grains and cotton & silk products have shown a decline at broad group level during the period. Imports of milk & milk products, fruits & vegetables, edible oil, and automobiles have shown increase during the period under reference.

In the edible oil segment, the imports have increased from Rs. 2120 crore last year to Rs. 3096 crore for the corresponding period this year. However, significant feature of edible oil import is that while import of crude palm oil has gone up, that of refined Soya bean & palm oil has gone down leading to better utilisation of the processing capacity in the country. However, import of Sunflower oil, both crude & refined, has gone down.

Imports from Indonesia, Malaysia, USA, Ivory Coast & Switzerland etc. have shown some increase while those from Australia, Argentina Benin, Paraguay Iran & Tanzania Rep. etc. have shown some decrease.

IMPORT OF SENSITIVE ITEMS- PROVISIONAL ESTIMATE

Value (Rs. Crore)

Sl. No.	COMMODITY GROUP	No. of Tariff lines	IMPORT
			April-July 01	April-July 02
1	Milk & Milk Products	22	6.88	16.35
2	Fruits & Vegetables	48	237.20	443.90
3	Poultry	13	0.17	0.07
4	Food Grains	12	2.72	0.01
5	Edible Oil	27	2119.77	3095.67
6	Alcoholic beverages	8	9.02	8.89
7	Cotton & Silk	6	1022.23	593.51
8	Automobiles	32	21.48	68.42
9	Products of concern to SSI (toys, writing instruments, tiles, glassware etc.)	20	33.83	37.98
10	Others	112	134.78	212.02
	Total	300	3588.08	4476.81