New Delhi: India is once again facing the heat of a proposed US law that would seek to levy as much as 500% tariffs on countries for buying Russian oil, after US senator Lindsey Graham said President Donald Trump has “greenlit” the Russia Sanctions bill.
“This bill would give President Trump tremendous leverage against countries like China, India and Brazil to incentivise them to stop buying the cheap Russian oil that provides the financing for (Vladimir) Putin’s bloodbath against Ukraine,” Graham, chairman of the Senate Budget Committee, said on Wednesday.
The bill, titled Sanctioning Russia Act of 2025, enables the US administration to impose tariffs and secondary sanctions on countries buying Russian oil, gas, and uranium,etc. “The President must increase the rate of duty on all goods and services imported from Russia into the United States to at least 500% relative to the value of such goods and services,” according to the bill.
A version of the bill released in April 2025 has a provision for the President to “waive the 500% tariffs for a period of up to 180 days with respect to a country, goods or service if he determines it is in the national interest of the United States.”
On Monday, Graham said Indian Ambassador to the US Vinay Kwatra had informed him about New Delhi reducing its purchases of Russian crude and asked him to convey to Trump to “relieve the tariff” imposed on India.
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The same day, Trump issued a fresh threat to India, saying Washington will raise tariffs on New Delhi if it continues importing Russian oil. He claimed that Prime Minister Narendra Modi “knew he was not happy” and New Delhi wanted to “make him happy”. On Tuesday, Trump said he knew Modi was “not that happy” with him over the imposition of steep tariffs on India.