Mumbai: India’s yearly gains from buying crude oil from Russia at a discount since the Ukraine war started in Feb 2022 is estimated to be just about $2.5 billion, a report by foreign broking major CLSA has said. This comes days after US treasury secretary Scott Bessent said that India’s total gain from buying cheap Russian oil was $16 billion. Some other media reports estimated the gain between $10 billion and $25 billion.“Benefit from Russian oil imports (by India) is way less than exaggerated media numbers,” CLSA said in the report. Analysts at the broking house calculated the net annual benefit to India from Russian crude imports to be much at $2.5 billion or a just 0.6 basis points of India’s GDP.For long, several countries have been trying to put pressure on India to stop it from buying Russian oil. If India, the world’s third-largest oil importer and consumer, succumbs, it may push crude oil prices to triple digits per barrel from around $67 for Brent now.India’s import of Russian oil has surged since the Ukraine war started. It rose from less than 1% of its total crude oil imports to nearly 40% now, driven mainly by the discount provided by Russia. Several countries including US have banned others from buying Russia oil. The report said the net gain to Indian importers for buying the oil was far smaller than the visible discount.