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US Treasury Secretary Scott Besant at a summit in New York The New York Times. The picture is of December 3, 2025.
US Finance Minister Scott Besant has said that the Donald Trump government may consider removing half of the 50% tariff imposed on India.
In an interview given to American media website Politico on Thursday, he said that India has significantly reduced the purchase of crude oil from Russia, hence there is scope for relief in tariffs.
Besant called it a big victory for America and said that the 25% tariff imposed on India has been very effective and due to this India’s Russian oil purchases have reduced. He said the tariffs are still in place, but there may now be a way to remove them.
America had imposed tariffs on India twice in August 2025. For the first time, a 25% tariff was imposed on August 1 to cover the trade deficit. After this, on August 27, another 25% tariff was imposed for purchasing oil from Russia.
Trump first imposed global tariffs on the world in April 2025.
Besant said- Europe is helping Russia by buying oil from India
Besant also said that European countries are not imposing tariffs on India because they want to make a big trade deal with India. He also accused Europe of helping Russia by buying refined oil from India.
Besant was speaking on the 500% tariff proposal on buying Russian oil. In this, America can impose up to 500% tariff on those countries which buy Russian oil.
Besant said that Senator Graham has proposed to impose 500% tax in the Senate. However, President Trump does not need this. The US President already has the authority under a law (IEEPA) to impose heavy economic sanctions or taxes on other countries citing national emergency.
America wants to increase pressure on Putin by stopping Russian oil sales
To increase pressure on Putin, America is asking many countries including India to stop buying oil from Russia. India has called this pressure wrong and unfair and has said that its energy policy is decided according to the interests of the country.
Even in Davos last week, Besant told Fox News that after Trump imposed 25% tariff, India had significantly reduced its oil purchases and has now almost stopped it.
Some recent reports say that some private companies of India have reduced oil imports from Russia, but the Indian government says that the purchase of oil from Russia is continuing.
India reaches third position in purchasing Russian oil
- In December 2025, India came to third place in purchasing oil from Russia. Turkey became the second largest buyer. Turkey bought oil worth 2.6 billion euros.
- India bought oil worth 2.3 billion euros i.e. about Rs 23,000 crore from Russia in December. In November, India had purchased oil worth 3.3 billion euros i.e. about Rs 34,700 crore.
- China still remains the biggest buyer, it bought oil worth 6 billion euros i.e. about Rs 63,100 crore from Russia in December.
- The biggest reason for India’s reduced purchases was Reliance Industries. Reliance’s Jamnagar Refinery almost halved its oil purchases from Russia.
- Earlier, Reliance used to take its entire supply from Russian company Rosneft. But due to fear of US sanctions, companies are now buying less oil from Russia.
- Apart from Reliance, government oil companies also reduced oil purchases from Russia by about 15% in December.
India became a big buyer of Russian oil after Ukraine war
After the Ukraine war, India started buying cheap oil in large quantities from Russia. Before the war, India’s oil imports from Russia were very low, but later it increased rapidly and India became a major buyer of Russia.
According to the report, India’s Russian oil imports had reached a six-month high in November 2025. That month, India bought 77 lakh tonnes of oil from Russia, which was more than 35% of the total imports.
But in December, oil supply from Russia to India fell to its lowest level in three years. According to the data, oil imports from Russia declined to about 12.4 lakh barrels per day in December, which is the lowest since December 2022.
Experts say that overall imports have definitely decreased, but government oil companies are still buying oil from Russia. He said that the demand has not completely ended, but the method of purchasing oil has changed.
Russia reduced discount
After the Ukraine war, Russia started selling cheap crude oil at $20-25 per barrel. At that time, the price of crude oil in the international market was $130 per barrel, hence this discount was economical for India.
However, now the price of crude oil in the international market has reached $63 per barrel. Russia has also reduced its discount to 1.5 to 2 dollars per barrel. With such a low concession, India is not getting the same benefits as before, and on top of that, the shipping and insurance costs involved in bringing oil from Russia are also high.
For this reason, India is now again buying oil from stable and reliable suppliers like Saudi, UAE and America, because now there is no longer a huge price difference as before.
India has said that it will take decision as per its interest
The Indian government has previously said that it will continue to buy cheap and reliable oil. The spokesperson of the Ministry of External Affairs and the Finance Minister have clearly said that the decision from where to buy oil will be taken on the basis of the country’s interest and international market prices.
Negotiations are currently going on between America and India regarding a trade agreement. In such a situation, the signs of reducing tariffs are being considered as a sign of softening of relations between the two countries.
Russia is not ready to accept payment in rupees
In the last two years, India has purchased a lot of crude oil from Russia. Whereas India has exported very little to Russia. Due to this imbalance, Russia has accumulated a lot of Indian rupees.
Russia cannot easily exchange it into dollars nor use it in trade with other countries.
The reason for this is that at the international level, Rupee is not a currency which can be easily accepted by most of the countries of the world or which can be easily exchanged in the global market. In such a situation, Russia is not able to use the money anywhere. Therefore he avoids taking payment in this.
Apart from this, the biggest problem after buying cheap oil from Russia is payment. America and Europe have imposed many types of economic sanctions on Russia. For this reason, international banks remain very cautious about transactions related to Russia. When India sends payments to Russia, sometimes the transactions get halted or take a lot of time to be approved.
There is a risk of American pressure and sanctions when paying in dollars, so sometimes money has to be sent through a third country bank, which makes the process more complicated. All this impacts Indian oil companies. Oil may be cheap, but due to stoppage of payment, the shipment also reaches late.
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