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Rafeeque Ahmed is FIEO chief
- Mr. Ahmed, Chairman of the Farida Group, was FIEO President from 2002 to 2004
India wants to pay for Iranian crude in rupees
- Fearing that fresh US sanctions may block a six-month-old conduit used for paying for Iranian crude, India wants to pay its second largest oil supplier in rupees.
- India currently pays Iran about $1 billion every month through Turkey for the 370,000 barrels per day of crude oil it buys from the world's fourth-largest oil producer.
- Under the proposal, National Iranian Oil Co (NIOC) will open a rupee account with Indian banks and can use the money to purchase non-strategic items like railway imports and buying commodities.
- It cannot, however, use the money to invest in India or buy shares or companies.
- The official said the Reserve Bank of India, which had in December 2010, discontinued a long-standing mechanism of payment through central banks, had previously opposed payments for the Iranian oil in rupee.
- India had in February last year started making euro payments through an Iranian bank based in Germany.
- But under US pressure, Germany soon stopped accepting money from India
- Routing payments through Russia was discussed during the visit of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to Moscow last month.
- However, Russia is not keen due to the "complexities" involved.
