A section of Indian refiners has started using Chinese yuan for the purpose of paying for importing crude from Russia, a British media publication said citing an unnamed government official on Friday.
"Use of yuan for payment by India will remain limited, given India doesn't accumulate much yuan as export to China is low," the official was quoted as saying.
The development is significant considering Moscow has a huge stockpile of unused Indian currency that runs into billions, something Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov confirmed in May.
Russia's ballooning stock of the INR was majorly due to its record shipments of oil to the South Asian country. After Western nations slapped economic sanctions on Moscow due to its ongoing special military operation in Ukraine, New Delhi latched on to millions of tonnes of crude that European countries had shunned.
However, record imports of crude from Russia resulted in an increasing trade surplus with billions of rupees lying in the accounts of Indian banks opened for trade with the Eurasian country.
Lavrov even described the situation as problematic.
"We need to use this money. But for this, these rupees must be transferred in another currency, and this is being discussed now," the Russian Foreign Minister said in May.
Last fiscal India's exports to Russia stood at $2.8 billion while imports crossed the $44 billion mark.