India to keep buying cheap, best quality oil, Govt to Parliament 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. "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.