The oil bill is still on the higher side despite the fact that the past two months recorded a slight slow down in import value, due to the more than 30 per cent deprecation of the rupee, which has increased the cost of imports.

In absolute term, the import value of oil increased to $5.482 billion in July-Nov from $3.771 billion over the same months last year, showing an increase of 45.36 per cent, suggested data issued by the federal bureau of statistics on Friday.

Though the oil bill was on the rise, a drop of 31.76 per cent has been witnessed in the month of November 2008 in oil import bill, which is the second straight highest decrease in the month under review, as against the previous month of October.

The statistics showed that the decline in oil import bill in November occurred on the back of steep cuts in the quantity of both crude oil and petroleum products imported due to a dip in demand, since the economy is slowing down.

Oil has lost more than 70 per cent of its value in the international market as fears escalate that a deepening global economic crisis will further depress demand.

The depreciation of the rupee and imposition of additional customs duty has resulted in lowering imports of transport vehicles by more than 48 per cent during the first five months of the current fiscal year. This decline in import has been recorded across the board in both complete built units and CKD/SKD vehicles.

The consumer demands for vehicles has also witnessed decline due to high inflation and also because of higher cost of consumer car financing through banks.

Analysts said Pakistan may not accrue that much benefit from the steep fall in the prices of edible oil, raw materials, and food items in the international market during the current fiscal year (ending June 30 2009), since the rupee has shed its value to such great extent.

It was expected that the net cost of Pakistan’s petroleum products could escalate in the current fiscal year. The full year oil import bill crossed the $11 billion mark last year causing a huge dent in the country’s forex reserves.