India will continue to buy oil from countries where it is cheap, of best quality: Govt to Parl. panel

The government on Tuesday informed a parliamentary panel that India will continue to import crude oil from the countries where it is cheap and of the best quality, and the Indian oil companies will purchase oil considering the geopolitical situation and non-sanctioned sources.

This was conveyed by top officials of the ministries of External Affairs and Commerce to the Parliamentary Standing Committee on External Affairs headed by Congress leader Shashi Tharoor, sources said.

Tharoor said it was an "extremely effective" meeting which lasted for over three hours and where 28 of the 30 members attended.

"The officials have responded to each and every question in great detail with confidence. It was an extremely effective meeting and an example of what the committees can do," he told reporters after the meeting.

Those who spoke to the MPs from the government side included Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri.

Tharoor said most of the time of the meeting was devoted to the Indo-US trade deal and India-EU Free Trade Agreement (FTA), and all subjects including Russian oil and agricultural products were discussed.

He said that the officials conveyed to the committee that India will work on finalising the interim agreement with the US and people will have to wait for its finer details.

On the reciprocal tariff of 18 per cent to be levied by the US, the Congress MP said trade has been weaponised in international commerce.

According to the report, while India will give access to some American products without any tariff, Indian products will be charged an 18 per cent tariff by the US. Before the trade deal, the US tariff on all Indian products was 25 per cent and an additional 25 per cent for buying Russian oil -- a total 50 per cent. It has been reduced to 18 per cent now.

"India is among the countries which got the lowest rate. Even EU products will face a 15 per cent tariff, products from the UK will face a 10 per cent tariff in return for a zero tariff," he said.

Tharoor said the bulk of the discussions focused on the India-EU and India-US trade agreements and the foreign secretary and the chief negotiator from the commerce ministry fully briefed the members.

"They responded in great detail to our questions and concerns. There is a rule of confidentiality. The most important is, given what they told us, we are looking forward to the interim agreement being finalised by the middle of next month, when that comes, the doubts may be addressed.

"This will also be discussed in Parliament. Some details we will have to wait for, particularly with regards to the US. We have to wait for the interim agreement. It will come next month," he said.

On the purchase of goods worth USD 500 billion from the US in five years, he said, "It was talked in detail, how USD 500 billion will be achieved. But there are answers.

"We do about USD 42 billion worth of imports now, they are saying it will not be difficult to double it. USD 500 billion is not a hard and fast commitment; we will be trying. There won't be a sanction, we will be trying to achieve that," he said.

On India-Bangladesh relations, Tharoor said the Indian government is in touch with all concerned in Bangladesh and the panel will call the foreign secretary again for a Bangladesh-specific discussion when the election results are out in the neighbouring country.

Sources said the officials informed the MPs that India will continue to import crude oil from the countries where it is cheap and of the best quality and the Indian oil companies will purchase oil considering the geo-political situation and non-sanctioned sources.

Indian oil companies can now buy oil from the US as well as Venezuela, where sanctions on energy have been lifted after the regime change.

AAP MP Raghav Chadha said the officials have given a detailed presentation on the India-US interim trade agreement and the India-EU FTA and their key aspects.

"It was very informative and we asked many questions. I do not want to discuss what transpired in the meeting but one thing I must note is that officials from the foreign ministry, including the foreign secretary, provided a detailed explanation and addressed our questions.

"There are some aspects we need to see unfold in the coming days as these trade deals take time to come into effect," he said.