United States Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent claimed on Tuesday that some of India’s richest families were profiteering from New Delhi buying and reselling cheap Russian oil amid Moscow’s war on Ukraine, reported CNBC.

In an interview to the news channel, Bessent also claimed that India’s imports of Russian oil have jumped from less than 1% before the Ukraine war, which began in February 2022, to 42%. The transactions have resulted in Indian businesses earning an estimated $16 billion in excess profits, he claimed.

United States President Trump has repeatedly alleged that India’s purchases of Russian oil were “fuelling the war machine”.

Echoing Trump’s claim, Bessent said: “What I would call Indian arbitrage, buying cheap Russian oil and reselling it as product, has just sprung up during the war which is unacceptable.”

India emerged as Russia’s largest crude oil importer between 2023 and 2024, surpassing China. During this period, India’s share of Russian crude oil imports increased from 30% to 34%, while China’s share decreased from 32% to 26%.

Indian refiners, including Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Industries, have leveraged the discounted prices of Russian crude oil to ramp up imports, refining the oil into products such as diesel and jet fuel for export to European markets, according to The Energy and Resources Institute.

Bessent’s remarks came amid diplomatic tensions between New Delhi and Washington after the Trump administration on August 6 doubled the tariffs on goods imported from India to 50% for purchasing Russian oil.

The doubling of the levies came a week after Trump announced a 25% levy on Indian goods as part of the so-called reciprocal tariffs on dozens of countries that have not finalised separate trade agreements with the US.

During the interview to CNBC, Bessent defended Washington’s decision not to impose a penalty on China by claiming that Beijing’s purchases from Russia rose only modestly from 13% to 16% since the start of the Ukraine war, as opposed to India.

Stating that it was a “completely different thing”, the US treasury secretary noted that China had been consistently buying oil from Russia before the war as well, whereas India had set up what he described as an “arbitrage” system during the conflict.

Bessent’s remarks came a day after White House trade adviser and economist Peter Navarro, in a column for The Financial Times, alleged that India’s increase in Russian oil imports was driven by “profiteering by India’s Big Oil lobby” and not “domestic oil consumption needs”.

In response to Trump’s doubling of tariffs, New Delhi had said that it was “extremely unfortunate” that the US had chosen to impose additional levies on India “for actions that several other countries are also taking in their own national interest”.

“We reiterate that these actions are unfair, unjustified and unreasonable,” said the Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson. “India will take all actions necessary to protect its national interests.”

Negotiators from both countries had completed a fifth round of talks in Washington last month, however, the next round, scheduled for August 25 in New Delhi, was abruptly cancelled, Reuters reported.

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