In the meeting of Iran-India Joint Chamber of Commerce with economic and banking activists of the two countries, the MD of UCO Bank Mr. Soma Sankara Prasad said that the bank has played a key role in improving the trade between the two countries and UCO Bank is the only Indian bank which has office in Tehran. He added that the bank has completed a 10-year process for implementing mechanism for payment in national currencies of the two countries and it has tried as a bank to accelerate the trade exchanges between the two states.

On delay for settling the financial obligations, he said that such a similar meeting had been held in the recent past where Indian exporters raised the same complaint, adding that the delay is rooted in decline in India’s oil purchase from Iran, and until 2019 when India used to buy Iran’s oil there was no problem in settling commercial exchange payments because there was enough money in the account but after 2019, the oil purchase was limited and Iran’s rupee deposit in its account was declined.

Prasad emphasized that both countries should find ways for increasing Iran’s rupee deposit in the bank for swift financial transactions, adding that statesmen of Iran and India should talk for finding new ways for increasing their bilateral trade exchanges. He reiterated that UCO Bank only plays the role for accelerating financial exchanges between the two states, and governments and private sectors of the two countries are in charge of increasing the trade exchanges.

Meanwhile Head of Iran-India Joint Chamber of Commerce Mr. Ebrahim Jamili, for his part, pointed to the recent change in Indian government’s approach and expressing interest for improving cooperation to the pre-sanctions era level and said that although he did not know how much India was serious in its recent approach, he called this approach promising.

He emphasized that resolving banking problems will lead to the rise in the trade exchanges, adding that although UCO Bank has been Iran’s trade partner from long time and it has had good cooperation even in the sanctions era but the chamber has some complaints about the bank’s performance.

Jamili went on to say that trade is a two-way road and demands of both sides should be considered, adding that both sides need more trust for cooperation, noting that business partners of Iran has trusted UCO Bank and deposit their money in the bank and they expect the bank to accelerate cooperation for the transfer of money and financial cooperation. Jamili reiterated that both Iranian and Iranian traders do not get their money in due time while Iran and India have signed the MoU for using mechanism of using national currencies.

He added that the chamber received some complaints from both Iranian and Indian traders over the failure of UCO Bank in fulfilling its commitment in timely payments.

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IRAN NEWS ECONOMIC DESK

TEHRAN – Vice President of India-Iran Chamber of Commerce Parham Rezaei believes that change in the U.S. political policy regarding Iran will affect the cooperation of Indian UCO Bank with Iran.

Speaking to ILNA, Rezaei said that UCO Bank has issued an executive directive since the moment Americans imposed sanctions on all Iranian banks one month ago, but it does not seem to come into effect.

On the UCO Bank directive regarding halt in cooperation with Iran as of November22, he said the bank has taken action in compliance with the list of the sanctions imposed by the U.S. which have targeted al Iranian banks, and as the result, UCO Bank last week issued a directive but due to the political changes in the U.S., it is not clear whether this directive is implemented or not and the trend may change any moment.

Rezaei noted that there have been some directives in the past which have not been implemented, either. He then referred to the volume of transactions between Iran and UCO Bank, saying that if this had happened before, it would have had great impact due to Iran’s crude oil sales to India because Iran’s oil revenues were transferred to Iran through UCO Bank. But since Iran’s oil sales in the past year have significantly decreased, the country does not have much money in the bank, he stated.

Rezaei also pointed to other channels for exchanges, saying that regarding other ways for exchanges which have been announced by Iran’s Industry, Mine and Trade Ministry like imports in exchange of exports, it does not seems the bank’s decision will have major impact.

Touching upon the fate of Iran’s assets at UCO Bank, he noted that Iran’s money is not blocked in the bank and it can be used for purchase of medicines and food stuff.

Rezaei reiterated that in the past, most of Iran’s transactions were done through UCO Bank as some 70 percent of import exchanges used to be carried out via this bank.

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