Will India be tariffed 500% for buying Russian oil? Here’s what US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent says

Will India be tariffed 500 per cent for its purchases of Russian oil? US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has shed a little light on the matter. 

During an interview at World Economic Forum 2026 in Davos, Bessent said “things are moving in a very positive way” for Washington. He spoke about the proposal that Senator Lindsey Graham has put in front of the Senate to “punish” those who continue to buy Russian oil with a 500 per cent tariff. 

“We will see whether that passes,” he said about the bill, and followed it by highlighting the ones on the list. 

“Just to be clear, we still have Europe buying Russian oil four four years later. They are financing the war against themselves. India started buying Russian oil after the conflict began but President Trump put a 25 per cent tariff on them and India has geared down and has stopped buying Russian oil. And then three, China is a very large buyer of Russian oil, as they are of Iranian oil and Venezuelan oil. But guess what, no more Venezuelan oil for them,” said Bessent. 

When asked if the US would treat China the same as the others when it comes to buying Russian oil, Bessent said, “We’ll see what happens with this Senate bill and the Iranian oil. That'll be up to President Trump.”

Earlier this month, Graham said that Trump has greenlit the bipartisan Russia sanctions bill that will allow them to “punish those countries who buy cheap Russian oil fueling Putin’s war machine”. “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 Putin’s bloodbath against Ukraine,” he had said.