India paid $24.4 billion more on crude oil purchases between April and August compared to a year earlier as the spikes in international oil prices raised the import bill by 48% despite a 0.4% decline in volumes, government data showed on Tuesday. The oil price surge amid the war and the uneven flows from the Middle East hiked India’s crude oil import bill to $74.8 billion in April-August, up by 48.4% from the same period last year, per data from the Oil Ministry’s Petroleum Planning and Analysis Cell (PPAC) cited by Indian outlet Business…