‘No pressure regarding Iran oil payment’

In a fire-dousing move, ministry of external affairs said on Friday that Reserve Bank of India (RBI) is sorting out the Iran oil payment issue and denied New Delhi was acting under pressure from any other country.

In a fire-dousing move, ministry of external affairs said on Friday that Reserve Bank of India (RBI) is sorting out the Iran oil payment issue and denied New Delhi was acting under pressure from any other country.

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Taking note of the reports of “problems with respect to settlement of current account transactions with Iran under the Asian Clearing Union mechanism,” ministry spokesperson Vishnu Prakash said: “This is a technical issue and the Reserve Bank of India is seized of the matter.” He denied that India was acting under US pressure.

ACU is a Tehran-based regional payment system under which firms settle transactions in either US dollars or euros. Petroleum secretary S Sundareshan said on Thursday that an alternate settlement method was being worked upon, after RBI barred firms using ACU to pay for crude and gas imports from Iran.