India Pays 60% of Oil Debts to Iran: Official
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – Chairman of Iran-India Business Council (IIBC) Ebrahim Jamili said India has so far paid 60 percent of its outstanding debts to the Islamic Republic for previous oil purchases.
Speaking to the Tasnim News Agency, Jamili said India is meeting its obligations under recent agreements with Iran about paying for oil purchases prior to the removal of anti-Tehran sanctions.
He further said India has paid 60 percent of its oil dues to Iran, adding that the two countries have recently agreed that the remaining debts be paid through a German bank.
A report published by The Hindu in July said India’s Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals Limited (MRPL) had cleared part of its outstanding oil debts to Tehran.
MRPL which owed $ 2.56 billion to Iran since 2013 toward import of crude oil had paid $1.4 billion, the report said at the time.
On May 21, the Indian government paid the first part of its oil dues to Iran in euros through Turkey’s Halkbank.
It was the first payment to Iran by India since the removal of the sanctions.
Indian refiners later announced on June 9 that they had started to settle the rest of their debts to Iran via State Bank of India and Germany-based bank Europaeisch-Iranische Handelsbank AG (EIH).
