‘A whole lot of factors’ will decide on Russian oil import to India: Finance minister

BENGALURU: Union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Wednesday at a media interaction in the city said that a “whole lot of factors” will decide on import of Russian oil to India.
While not suggesting that the country is averse to importing Russian oil, amid the Western countries economic sanctions and crude oil import bans due to the ongoing conflict between Ukraine and Russia, Sitharaman said over the last two to three days Russia has been making an open offer to supply its surplus oil at a discounted price.
“There was an open offer over the last two-three days that Russia was giving it (crude oil) at some sort of discounted price but we don’t know how it can be of effect because a whole lot of factors will have to be weighed-in and we will have to get it from some port to ship it and then whether it can come to India, and whether it is workable…” she said.