Indian media: Save 350 billion billion

Indian media: Buying Russian oil at a discount price, India has saved 350 billion rupees since February.

According to the "Indian Times" reported on the 19th, people familiar with the matter said that since the start of the Russian -Ukraine conflict in February this year, the practice of buying Russia's oil at a large amount of discount prices is expected to save 350 billion rupees (about 4.4 billion US dollars) for India.

It is reported that some old buyers avoid buying Russian oil because they are worried about Western sanctions, so that India can buy it at a discount price. Although Western countries such as the United States have put pressure on India to avoid importing oil from Russia, India still chooses to do so.

At present, India has become the second largest buyer in Russia's oil, second only to China. Petroleum from Russia accounted for 12%of the total imports of Indian oil, and the proportion of the Russian -Ukraine conflict was less than 1%. In July this year, Russia once replaced Saudi Arabia as India's second largest oil supply country. Reuters quoted trade data that although Saudi Arabia returned to the second place in August, Russia remained third.

Screenshot of the Indian Times report

The Indian Times quoted data from the Ministry of Commerce of India that during the April to July, the total value of mineral oil imported from Russia has soared by more than 8 times to $ 11.2 billion, while the same period last year was $ 1.3 billion.

The report pointed out that oil prices are essential to India because 83%of India's oil demand is met to meet through import, which makes the Indian economy fragile. The country's oil import bills turned over from 2021-2022 to $ 119 billion, which led to the government's fiscal tension and increased pressure on the economic recovery after the new crown.

Earlier this month, the Indian Minister of Finance Nirmala Sitharaman said at a seminar that importing oil from Russia is part of the Indian government's inflation management strategy, and other countries are also taking similar measures Essence

The Indian Times mentioned that this is the second time India has saved funds through dips in the global oil market. In 2020, when the global new crown epidemic caused oil prices, the Indian government took the opportunity to fill the strategic reserves, and the refinery stored oil on the ship, saving 25 billion rupees when the price rose.

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