India's three-way payment: India sent 2 billion large orders! But we ask for "payment before delivery", why?

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Prior to this, a news item from Russia raised eyebrows. The Russian government rejected India's request to use the rupee as the settlement currency for bilateral trade with India. Many believe that Russia has finally seen through India's true colours. Indeed, doing business with India can be very troublesome and one can easily fall into traps.

India has always had a poor reputation in the international community, either defaulting on agreements at will or cancelling previously signed agreements, causing it to lose numerous partners. Even China is reluctant to work with India. India has placed another big order worth $2 billion, but China is demanding payment before delivery.

1. India's $2 billion order

India's recent surge in interest in new energy sources has led the government to seek a global partner, and naturally it has looked to China. In recent years, Chinese automakers have made numerous breakthroughs in new energy research and development, leading the global trend. As a result, India is once again placing big orders with China.

The Indian government is reportedly planning to buy a batch of new energy vehicles from BYD for a total of RMB 2 billion. BYD was naturally delighted by the news, as such a major deal would be a huge boost to its growth. However, BYD has made a request: India must pay before delivery.

2. "Payment before delivery"

In our daily lives, the purchase of goods usually involves the exchange of money and products. However, this is not the case in international trade. Due to the large size and high price of the goods purchased, instalments or payment after delivery are usually used. But this time BYD broke the tradition and asked India to pay before delivery.

We can understand BYD's request because India's first impression on the international stage is one of poor credibility, especially after repeatedly cheating China on such matters. So what exactly did India do that it had to pay before receiving the goods?

3. India's deception of Russia

Since the conflict between Russia and Ukraine, Russia has faced a severe economic crisis. Due to the double sanctions imposed by the European Union and the United States on Russia's economy and energy, Russia is in dire need of exporting domestic oil in exchange for foreign exchange. However, due to the influence of the United States, no country dares to trade with Russia even if the price of Russian oil continues to fall.

Seeing the low price of Russian oil, India did not care about the position of the United States and directly purchased large quantities of Russian oil but demanded payment in rupees. Russia, eager for foreign exchange, agreed to India's demand and suffered huge losses as a result. The rupee has a low credibility in the international community and is not accepted by many countries. The remaining 150 million rupees in Russia's hands could only be used in India and were actually cheated by India.

4. Non-payment for high-speed rail

In 2016, India launched a global tender to build a high-speed railway in the country. China and Japan, both leading countries in high-speed railway technology, participated in the bidding. Japan narrowly won the bid. However, to their surprise, the project ended up costing Japan a lot of money and is still unfinished.

When the construction of the high-speed railway began, India demanded that Japan pay compensation for the land needed for the railway, doubling the original budget of 1.6 trillion yen. India also asked Japan to waive the interest on the loan. After some calculations, Japan found that not only did it not earn a cent from building the railway for India, but it lost more than 100 billion yen, so it gave up the project. To date, only 10 kilometres of this railway have been built.

5. India's credibility is known globally

Apart from Russia and Japan, India has cheated many other countries. When Shanghai Electric helped India build a power station, India also cheated them and even claimed $2.1 billion in compensation. Mobile phone makers such as Xiaomi, OPPO and Vivo were also cheated by India, which froze their assets on the pretext of tax evasion, resulting in a loss of billions of yuan.

Even the international brand Apple has been badly cheated by India. Apple initially chose to build a factory in India because of the cheap labour there. However, after the factory was built, they found that the workers only worked five hours a day and the products in the factory were often stolen. Even the factory security guards employed by Apple in India were involved in the thefts, causing huge losses.

In short, India's past actions have led to a decline in its reputation in the international arena and its credibility has hit rock bottom. That's why, when it came to buying BYD's new energy vehicles worth Rs 2 billion, they were asked to make payments before delivery.

What do you think are the reasons for India's poor credibility?