India and Iran researching for permanent solution to payment for crude oil imports

07 Oct 2011 Evaluate
New Delhi and Tehran are discussing to find the long-term solution to settle the payments for crude oil imports from the Iran via banks in South Korea Russia. Recently, India had managed to pay the long pending dues to Iran via Turkey’s Halkbank.

As per the government official, on October 5, in the joint meeting in New Delhi, both the Asian nations have decided that the both governments will also find out other stable payment options such as through won and rouble.

As of now, Indian government had paid around $5 million to Iran in Euros via Turkey’s Halkbank. However, this mechanism can also come under the pressure of United State government as it was happened in the case of the German-based EIH Bank.

During February 2011, the Indian government has made part payment for Tehran’s crude oil imports via German banks EIH, however, because of the United States government pressure, that route was soon closed. Because of the resistance from United States, the Indian government is not able to pay Iran in dollars.

The dispute over payment raised after the Reserve Bank of India closing the regional clearing house that involve the Iranian central bank, because of this move of the RBI, the Iranian central bank was not able to settle oil and gas transactions between India and Iran.

The RBI had discontinued payment mechanism via the Asian Clearing Union (ACU) for crude oil to Iran under the pressure from United States. The ACU is a initiative of the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and Pacific (ESCAP), which was established in 1974 at Tehran for promoting regional co-operation. It facilitates payments among member countries for eligible transactions on a multilateral basis.

Both the Asian nations are negotiating with Russia and South Korea as both the nations have trade relations with Iran. India imports more than 80% of its requirements and Iran is second largest oil supplier to Indian after Saudi Arabia, it account for the 16% of India’s total oil imports.

The Ministry of Finance in a statement had said that a delegation from the Islamic Republic of Iran had met an inter-ministerial delegation from India to discuss several issues, including matters relating to settlement of payments on account of bilateral trade between the two countries. The finance ministry, the commerce ministry, the oil ministry and the RBI, were represented India.

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