India’s import of sensitive items, including foodgrains and milk products, has gone up by 9.3 per cent to Rs 65,596 crore during April-February 2010-11, from Rs 60,011 crore in the year-ago period.

Foodgrains’ import soared to Rs 250.17 crore during the 11 months of last fiscal from Rs 91.80 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 753.42 crore and that of automobiles rose to Rs 2,314.75 crore during the period under review from Rs 286.24 crore and Rs 1,035.04 crore, respectively in the year-ago period.

During April-February 2010-11, import of items such as alcoholic beverages and rubber also increased by 47.1 per cent and 95.9 per cent, respectively.

As per the data, the increase in import of edible oils was 13.7 per cent to Rs 27,314.27 crore over the year ago period. Import of products of small-scale industries like umbrella, locks, toys and glassware, too, went up by 45.2 per cent to Rs 1,329 crore over the same period previous fiscal.

“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 27.7 per cent and 18.6 per cent during the period. No reason was disclosed for the contraction. 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-February 2010-11 was Rs 13,92,178 crore as compared to Rs 12,28,944 crore during the same period last year.

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

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