US sanctions cast shadow on India-Iran trade; Iran official
Vice president of India-Iran Chamber of Commerce Parham Rezaei told that the Indian government and private sector are keen to work with Iran, but they have reduced their trades because of the US sanctions.
Speaking to ILNA news agency, Rezaei pointed that India is no longer among the Iran’s top five trading partners, adding “The most important reason for India to abandon of our exporters was the problem of money transfers because Iranian exporters were having difficulty getting their money back.”
“As a result, our private sector exports were minimized.”
He added that another problem was the high price of Iranian goods; most Iranian goods have competitors whose country has a preferential tariff agreement with the Indian government, while Iranian goods have to pay a multiplier of duties.
Rezai refereed to banking problems and said “The FATF in India is very serious and Indian government insists that the money should be deposited into the owner's account in order to eliminate money laundering.”
“There is nothing wrong with importing food and medicine because Iran is open to accepting rupee payment for oil and may use the money to pay for drugs and food items it buys from India.”
He suggested that the easiest way to overcome these problems is to establish an Iranian bank in India and of course, a private bank has obtained the necessary licenses from the Government of India.
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