Ending weeks of uncertainty, India today decided to pay for Iranian crude oil in euros through a German bank based in Hamburg, a finance ministry official said today.
The conduit (route) was decided at a high-level meeting chaired by National Security Advisor Shiv Shankar Menon.
“State Bank of India (SBI) has been instructed to clear over $2 billion of backlog payment beginning this evening,” the official said.
The meeting was also attended by Economic Affairs Secretary R Gopalan, Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao and Petroleum Secretary S Sundareshan.
SBI will route euro payments to National Iranian Oil Co’s account in the Hamburg-based Europäisch-Iranische Handelsbank AG (EIH Bank).
The official said over $2 billion payment was pending since September and another $1.3 billion was outstanding since December 23.
This is when the Reserve Bank of India disallowed payments for Iranian crude oil using a long-standing clearing house system, run by the central banks of nine countries — including India and Iran — dubbed the Asian Clearing Union.
