Mumbai: Reserve Bank of India Deputy Governor KC Chakrabarty on Friday said efforts were being made to explore ways to pay for oil imported from Iran, which has been subjected to international sanctions.
Chakrabarty termed the issue as one arising purely out of international sanctions on Iran and not a financial one. "We are finding, something is happening," he said when asked about the way ahead to pay Iran for the crude which the country imports.
When asked about the recent visit by an Indian team to the Gulf nation for settling the issue, he said, "They have to find a way out.
"It is very difficult. It is international diplomacy. It has nothing to do with finance," Chakrabarty said, speaking on the sidelines of an event here this evening.
"The problem is we are not able to route the transactions through some banks because of international sanctions," he added.
Iran is the country's second largest supplier of crude after Saudi Arabia. Earlier, payments for crude were made through multi-lateral settlement mechanisms which stopped about a year ago due to UN-imposed sanctions.
Later, a novel way of payment was worked out wherein the Iranian Central Bank opened rupee accounts with Indian commercial banks, but that also is reportedly in trouble.
US President Barack Obama on December 31 signed into law measures that deny access to the US financial system to any foreign bank that conducts business with the central bank of Iran.
A report earlier this week said Iran was exploring the idea of increasing imports from India to compensate for its export of oil.
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