Iran oil payment row: India denies acting under US pressure
By IANSFriday, December 31, 2010
NEW DELHI - Amid a row over oil payments to Iran, India Friday said efforts are being made to resolve the issue and denied acting under pressure from any other country.
“We have seen reports regarding problems with respect to settlement of current account transactions with Iran under the Asian Clearing Union mechanism,” external affairs ministry spokesperson Vishnu Prakash aid
“This is a technical issue and the Reserve Bank of India is seized of the matter, he said.
Efforts are being made to resolve the issue as soon as possible, the spokesperson said, adding that there was no question of India acting under pressure of any country.
“We are working on an alternate settlement mechanism, Petroleum Secretary S. Sundareshan said Thursday after the Reserve Bank of India barred firms using ACU to pay for crude and gas imports from Iran. “Alternate mechanism payments could be in any currency. It could be yen or (Iran’s) local currency,” Sundareshan added.
ACU, based in Tehran, is a regional payment arrangement under which companies settle transactions in either US dollars or euros.
India had imported 21.3 million tonnes of crude oil from Iran in 2009-10.
In a statement, the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) Thursday accused the government of surrendering under the US pressure over the Iranian oil payment issue.
“The decision of the central government to bar Indian companies from using the ACU to process payments will directly affect Indias trade with Iran and in particular will affect the import of gas and crude oil from Iran which constitutes around 16 to 17 per cent of the countrys crude oil requirements, the CPI-M statement said.
“The Americans have been pressurizing India as Irans largest trading partner in the ACU to close down this route as they consider it a barrier in the implementation of the USs arbitrarily imposed sanctions on all companies doing trade with Iran, the party said.
“This decision of the government of India is a shameful surrender to US foreign policy agendas and is against the national interest, the CPI-M said.
