The Union Commerce Secretary, Mr Rahul Khullar, today said that India was expected to put a permanent “payment settlement mechanism” in place for overseas trade with Iran, in a months time.
The proposed mechanism should ensure payment against Indian imports (mostly crude oil) from Iran as well as settlement of payments against Indian exports to Iran. Indian exports including tea, refractories and a host of other items are hit by the payment uncertainty.
Mr Khullar was speaking on the sidelines of annual general meeting of Indian Tea Association (ITA) here today.
According to him, the Finance Ministry is closing in on a permanent solution to the payment crisis with regard to both Indian imports and exports and is expected to put a mechanism in place “in a month”.
India has recently released payments against import of crude oil from Iran through Turkey.
Responding to queries if India would route its payments through Turkey or introduce rupee trade, Mr Khullar said that all such options were looked into.
Minimum tea export price
Earlier addressing the meeting, the Tea Board acting Chairman, Mr Siddharth, proposed introduction of a minimum price for tea exports as part of the quality initiative.
“Probably it would not be a bad idea to introduce a minimum price– much in the lines of minimum support price - for exports,” he said adding that benchmarking quality parameters for exports should help the tea industry to market its produce overseas.
Earlier, ITA Chairman, Mr C.S. Bedi, pointed out that the fund allocation for quality upgradation and diversification (QUPDS) and the embedded orthodox subsidy schemes, fell short of the demand. The planters body stressed on the need for continuation and strengthening of the scheme to ensure development of the sector.