Oil Secretary Vivek Rae has reported that India is willing to pay $1.5 billion to Iran to partially clear its payments in arrears for oil following the partial easing of western sanctions on Tehran. This amount is precisely half of what the country roughly owes for Iranian crude, i.e, $3 billion, which got accumulated after a previous payment mechanism through Turkey's Halkbank was stopped under pressure from sanctions
Iran, in a deal inked on November 24, 2014 with six major powers, secured access to $4.2 billion in oil revenues from a number of countries that had been frozen abroad. The funds, as per the deal, were payable in eight transfers on a schedule that started with a $550 million payment by Japan on February 1. While, South Korea is set to make two payments in March totalling $1 billion, the next schedule for payment would come on April 10.
India could pay as much as $450 million to Tehran, the capital and largest city of Iran on March 1, if it satisfies targets set down in the November deal, according to the payment schedule. It can then receive two further tranches of $550 million on March 7 and April 10 without having to meet further conditions. However, payments from April 15 will be contingent on confirmation that Iran has kept its commitment to dilute all of its 20 percent enriched uranium to no more than 5 percent enriched uranium.