Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Wednesday said the government had started exploring alternatives to sunflower oil, which India imports in large quantities from Ukraine.
Ukraine’s invasion by Russia has stoked fears over the import of sunflower oil from the eastern European nation.
“The government has started looking for other places... if not sunflower oil, any other oil that can come into India, that is used in India,” Sitharaman said during a media interaction here, adding that this may prove to be a challenge because of the ongoing war.
Sitharaman said that Russia has made ‘an open offer’ to supply oil at a discounted price, but she specified that the government has not yet decided as many factors need consideration.
The US, in addition to economic sanctions, has banned all imports of Russian oil, gas and energy.
“There was an open offer in the last 2-3 days that Russia is giving [oil] at some sort of discounted price. But, we don’t know... a whole bunch of factors have to be weighed in,” Sitharaman said.
“We have to get it from some port to ship it and then whether or not it can come to India, and whether or not it is workable,” she added.
There’s also an issue with insurance for consignments, Sitharaman pointed out.
“There are consignments that should have insurance cover adequately. Will they get insurance? The nitty-gritty needs to be worked out if at all,” she said. The minister said the petroleum minister is “fairly seized of the matter”.
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