India's oil import bill jumps to $43 bn

Energy-hungry India's oil import bill has swelled to 43 billion dollars in 2005-06 fiscal on the back of high global oil prices, Commerce Minister Kamal Nath said today.India imports some 73 per cent of its crude oil requirement and also sources petroleum products like LPG from abroad.Presenting the annual supplement to the Foreign Trade Policy, Nath said: "Our imports have grown 32 per cent and stand at 140 billion USD, but 43 billion USD is our oil bill." India's oil import bill in 2004-05 was close to 29 billion USD, with about 25 billion USD spent on import of crude oil alone.During the first 10-months of 2005-06 fiscal, India spent 31.2 billion USD on crude oil import and another 4.176 billion USD on importing petroleum products. It earned 8.27 billion USD from exporting petroleum products.Crude oil imports jumped 3.4 per cent to 90.34 million tonnes in April-February from 87.37 million tonnes in the same period of the previous year. Product exports rose 34.1 per cent to 10.22 million tonnes, while exports were up 20 per cent to 19.389 million tonnes.