TEHRAN: Even as the RBI sought the concurrence of the government to restart Asian Clearing Union mechanism to pay for crude oil that India will now import from Iran, senior officials from the central bank of the West Asian nation will visit Mumbai and New Delhi soon to speed up the process of getting the past dues cleared.
The vice governor of Central Bank of Iran, Gholamali Kamyab, will lead the delegation of senior officials from the Islamic Republic. The delegation will meet top brass of the RBI in Mumbai and officials of the Ministry of Finance in New Delhi.
The discussion will focus not only on returning to the Asian Clearing Union mechanism to pay for the crude oil Iran will export to India in future, but also to settle differences over clearing dues for past imports from the Persian Gulf nation when it was under sanctions from the UN, US and EU.
V K Singh, Minister of State for External Affairs, recently informed the Lok Sabha that the RBI had of late, sought the concurrence of the Department of Economic Affairs of the Ministry of Finance for restarting payment for crude oil India imported from Iran through the ACU. The accounts of the banks of Iran in India would also be re-activated after the RBI reinstates Iran under the ACU mechanism, added Singh.
The quantum of India’s import from Iran in December 2015 was the highest in six months. India, the biggest oil client of Iran after China, shipped in 208,300 bpd of oil and condensate in 2015, compared with 276,800 bpd in 2014.
Iran has agreed to receive in instalments the pending payments against crude oil it supplied to India when it was under sanctions imposed on it by the US, EU and UN. After discontinuing payment through ACU, New Delhi and Tehran had worked out an alternative payment mechanism, which provided for around 45% of the oil bill to be paid in rupees in a UCO Bank account in India, while the remaining 55% was to be cleared after reopening of banking channels following withdrawal of sanctions.
New Delhi and Tehran are now negotiating whether the payment for the 55 % dues would be calculated taking into account the foreign exchange rate of 2013 (when the mechanism was agreed upon) or at the current rate.
