India’s import of sensitive items up nearly 43 per cent in FY’12.

Import of sensitive items into the country rose 42.8 per cent to Rs1,00,911 crore during the financial year ended March 2012, from Rs70,656 crore during the corresponding period of last year.

Gross import of all commodities during the period was Rs23,42,217 crore against Rs16,83,467 crore during the same period last year.

Thus import of sensitive items constituted 4.3 per cent of the country's overall imports in 2011-12 against 4.2 per cent of gross imports in the previous financial year 2010-11.

Import of food grains declined at broad group level during the period. Imports of all other items, namely, edible oil, automobiles, pulses, fruits and vegetables (including nuts), rubber, cotton and silk, products of SSI, spices, milk and milk products, alcoholic beverages, marble and granite and tea and coffee have increased during the period under review, the release noted.

Import of edible oils has increased to Rs46,09.2 crore during the 2011-12 financial year from Rs29,319.1 crore last year. During the year, imports of both crude oil as well as refined oil have gone up by 53.5 per cent and 85.6 per cent, respectively.

The increase in edible oil import has mainly been due to substantial increase in import of crude palm oil and its fractions, it said.

Imports of sensitive items from Indonesia, China, Malaysia, Germany, Argentina, Ukraine, Korea, United States, Japan, Thailand, Canada, Myanmar, United Kingdom, Australia, Cote D' Ivoire, Vietnam Socialist Republic, Guinea Bissau etc have gone up while those from Brazil etc have gone down.