New Delhi: India’s imports of petroleum products and merchandise imports from Russia have significantly grown in the first quarter of the 2026-2027 financial year, latest trade data published Monday by the Ministry of Commerce and Industry has shown.
Indian merchandise imports from Russia have grown by 52.6 percent in the months of April to June of 2026, in comparison to the same period last year. Imports from Russia touched $25.6 billion during the first three months of this financial year, up from $16.77 billion during the same period last year.
At the same time, India’s import bill of petroleum, crude oil and its derivatives grew from $49.24 billion during the April-June quarter of last year to $60.62 billion this year, marking a 23.11 percent growth.
India’s imports from Russia remain largely based on crude oil.
In FY 2025-2026 India imported $47.8 billion worth of crude from Russia. Imports of crude from Russia accounted for around 86 percent of all merchandise imports to India in the previous financial year.
While the country-wise data of total imports were published, the specific commodity-wise data is yet to be made public. However, India-Russia trade has revolved around crude for the last several years, especially since the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
Commerce Secretary Rajesh Agrawal during an interaction with the media Monday said that the growth in imports of oil could be linked to the rise in prices of crude. In the last few months, the price of crude oil crossed $100 a barrel, given the war between the US, Israel and Iran.
Iran effectively closed the Strait of Hormuz—the international waterway that accounted for a fifth of global energy supplies—following joint US-Israel strikes on Tehran and a number of other cities on 28 February.
As a result of the war, the US had issued a sanctions waiver, allowing countries to purchase Russian oil in March. The effort to calm global oil prices allowed Indian firms to once again import oil from Russian sources.
The US administration had pushed India to curb Russian oil imports since President Donald J. Trump returned to the White House in January 2025. Under the previous administration led by President Joseph R. Biden Jr., India was urged to buy large amounts of Russian oil to calm global markets.
India’s Russian imports fell during Trump’s pressure campaign last year. The US had imposed a 25 percent additional tariff on Indian goods, above the 25 percent base tariff, in an effort to curb Russian oil imports.
Indian firms sought to diversify their sources of crude. However, since the sanctions waiver in March, Indian firms were allowed to resume their purchases of Russian crude. The sanctions waiver expired in the middle of June.
India’s imports of Russian crude hit a record high that month, according to a report published Friday by the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air (CREA). Roughly $5.14 billion worth of crude was imported from Russia by Indian firms in June, the report said. India remains the second largest buyer of Russian hydrocarbons globally, mostly crude oil.
Russian crude accounted for roughly 52 percent of India’s crude basket in June, as reported by ThePrint. India imported roughly 2.6 million barrels per day of crude from Russia last month, which comfortably beat its earlier record of 2.1 mbpd in July 2024.
In the first quarter of the current financial year, Russia emerged as the second largest source of goods for India, behind China, according to data published by the Ministry of Commerce and Industry. Imports from the United Arab Emirates fell during the first quarter of the year. Abu Dhabi was the most heavily targeted country in the region by Iran, following the start of the war in February.
(Edited by Amrtansh Arora)
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