US Treasury Secretary Bessent accuses India of profiteering from Russian oil
Scott Bessent claims India made a profit of $16 billion by reselling sanctioned oil, calling New Delhi’s actions 'unacceptable' during an interview
US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has accused India of profiteering by reselling cheap, sanctioned Russian oil. He also claimed that New Delhi has made a profit of $16 billion, describing India’s actions as “unacceptable”.
Bessent, in an interview with CNBC on Tuesday (August 20), said that before the Russian invasion of Ukraine, India bought less than 1 per cent of its oil from Russia. After the Russia-Ukraine war broke out, India’s oil import from Russia have shot up by 42 per cent.
India made $16 billion in profit
“Now I believe India had less than 1 per cent of their oil from Russia, and now I believe it’s up to 42 per cent. So India is just profiteering and also reselling Russian oil. They made $16 billion and excess …some of the richest families in India,” said Bessent.
Earlier, US President Donald Trump slapped 25 per cent retaliatory tariffs on India for buying Russian oil, which, combined with the previous 25 per cent reciprocal tariffs, has pushed the total US tariff rate on Indian goods to 50 per cent.
Also Read: US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent warns of higher tariffs on India
China's oil imports a different thing
Asked why similar actions were not taken against China, another major importer of Russian oil, Bessent said that India’s actions were a “completely different thing”, adding Indian arbitrage buying cheap Russian oil and resealing it as a product that has just sprung up during the war which is unacceptable.”
“China importing Russian oil is sub-optimal. But if you go back and look, during the pre-invasion, 13 per cent of China’s oil was already coming from Russia. Now it has gone up to 16 per cent. So China has a diversified input of their oil,” he added.
Also Read: Trump imposed tariffs on India to end Russia-Ukraine war: White House
On Russia-Ukraine war
As for the possibility of a truce between Russia and Ukraine, Bessent said that one of the conflicts was to make Russian President Vladimir Putin want to end it.
“Currently, the Russian economy has over 20 per cent inflation. Right now, it’s a war economy. Right now, it's a war economy. I think more than 25 per cent of the GDP is coming from the military build-up. So it’s a very imbalanced economy. There are frozen Russian assets, and the run-off from those is being used to finance the war. So there are a lot of moving pieces here,” he added.