India imposes more curbs on trade with Iran

India’s Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has imposed further curbs on carrying out businesses with Iran, saying all current account transactions including trade deals with the west Asian country should be settled outside the Asian Clearing Union (ACU). Last week, the country’s central bank had directed that payment for importing oil or gas from Iran, India’s biggest crude oil supplier after Saudi Arabia, should be settled in any permitted currency outside the ACU mechanism. Importers and exporters have been experiencing difficulties in payments to receipts from Iran, the world’s fifth-largest crude exporter. Hence, these transactions should be settled outside ACU until further notice, it added. “In view of the difficulties being experienced by importers exporters in payments to receipts from Iran… it has been decided that all eligible current account transactions including trade transactions with Iran should be settled in any permitted currency outside the ACU mechanism until further notice,” India’s central bank said in a statement late on Monday. The ACU is an arrangement where the participants settle payments for intra-regional transactions among member central banks, helping economize the use of foreign exchange and transfer costs. The bloc includes the central banks of India, Bangladesh, the Maldives, Myanmar, Iran, Pakistan, Bhutan, Nepal and Sri Lanka. – Arabnews