Dec 10 (Reuters) - Indian and Iranian officials are meeting this week to discuss how to unlock the first oil payments to the Middle Eastern nation since the U.S. and other world powers eased sanctions last month in exchange for curbs to Tehran's nuclear programme.Last month six world powers and Tehran reached an interim deal that provided limited relief toIranfrom economic sanctions, opening the way for some oil payments to resume.
The deal is a chance for Iran's new leadership to revive the country's economy, plagued with high inflation and a weakened currency since being cut off from the global financial system after sanctions were imposed in 2012.
The West believes Iran is trying to make a bomb, while the Middle Eastern nation says it programme is for power generation.
India and Iran are to discuss how to restart oil payments in foreigncurrencies, including a plan to process partial payments for oil in euros through a Turkish bank, two government sources said.
A delegation of Iranian officials led by Gholamali Kamyab, deputy governor at Iranian Central Bank, is in India until Dec. 13, and is meeting with officials of thefinanceministry and Reserve Bank of India on Tuesday, the sources said.
Iran had asked Indian refiners in mid-October, before the deal was reached with world powers, to resume paying for oil imports in euros through Turkey's Halkbank but the refiners are still seeking directions from the government.
India started settling 55 percent of its payments for Iranian crude in euros through Halkbank in mid-2012. The rest was settled in rupees through India's UCO Bank.
But the Halkbank route was halted in February this year when fresh sanctions prevented Iran from repatriating cash earned from oil it has been able to sell, crippling its economy by choking off its biggest revenue stream.
Since then Indian refiners have been withholding payment for 55 percent of their Iranian oil imports, while Iran scouted for an alternative way to receive that money in hard currencies like dollar and euros.
At the end of November Indian refiners owed about $2.2 billion for partial payments to Iran, on top of about $4 billion lying in Tehran's account with UCO Bank, industry officials said on Tuesday.
India is Iran's second-largest buyer but its oil imports from the OPEC member plunged to about 170,000 bpd in the April-October period, a decline of about 40 percent from a year ago, tanker arrival data made available to Reuters showed.
A finance ministry official said this week India would continue to settle part of its oil payments in rupee through UCO Bank until receiving further information on the lifting of U.S. and EU sanctions on Iran.
India wants to fix its trade imbalance with Iran, tilted now in favour of Tehran because of oil purchases. New Delhi wants to boost its exports to the Islamic nation by letting Iran pay for goods in the billions of rupees it has in UCO Bank.
Indian exports to Iran are expected to touch $6 billion in the year to March 31, 2014, almost double from last fiscal year's $3.2 billion, said Ajay Sahai, director general, Federation of Indian Export Organisations (FIEO).
He said the rupee trade mechanism had helped exports of agricultural commodities, pharmaceutical and auto components to Tehran. An industry delegation will visit Iran next week to push up exports, industry sources said.
By Reuters
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