Amid U.S. sanctions, Iran is exploring ways to increase its bilateral trade with India, including expanding banking channels.
“Only one bank (UCO Bank) has business relationship with Iran. We need to expand that,” said Hamid Reza Fouladgar, head of the seven-member Parliamentary delegation from Iran that is visiting India to improve bilateral ties.
“There is need to sign free trade agreements with India to reduce customs and tariffs on both sides to improve bilateral trade,” he added.
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“The volume of trade between Iran and India stands between $10 billion and $13 billion, which has tremendous potential for improvement.
“The Iranian Parliament recently ratified an agreement to avoid double taxation between Iran and India,” he said.
Talking about U.S. sanctions, Mr. Fouladgar said, “We are paying the price for our freedom in the form of restrictions and sanctions. This is in spite of the fact that we have fulfilled all our commitments towards the nuclear deal. However, the U.S. continues not to fulfil its commitment.
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“The IAEA [International Atomic Energy Agency] had inspected our facilities 14 times and agreed that Iran had fulfilled all its commitments towards the nuclear deal but the U.S. is now putting pressure on Iran in the name of human rights violations.”
Chabahar Port
Early this year, India had taken over operations of the strategic Chabahar in Iran opening a new strategic route connecting Iran, India, and Afghanistan, bypassing Pakistan.
“The Chabahar Port will be helpful for India to access central and west Asia. With Chabahar Port, India and Iran can start luxury ships for tourism, which will take 72 hours. It’s a very inexpensive route compared to [doing it by air]. Chabahar is connected to Tehran through rail. There is a plan to introduce a special tourist train throughout Iran,” Mr. Fouladgar added.
To boost tourism, Iran had started offering stapled visas and e-visas to Indians. Confirming the development, Khosrow Reza Zadeh, acting Consul General of the Consulate General of the Islamic Republic of Iran said, “There will be no stamps on passports. You can get stapled visas. You can get visas on arrival within half an hour in Iran. We have also introduced e-visa facility. For business, you can get multi-use visa for six months.”
Vijay Kalantri, president, All India Association of Industries (AIAI) said that in spite of sanctions, India is one of the largest oil importers from Iran.
“After India's investment in Chabahar Port, there is more opportunity of doing business with Iran. We need to resolve all issues for road routes through Afghanistan to increase trade further. Iran should look at investing in India for the oil India imports from Iran. So far only UCO Bank is available for doing business with Iran, we should have more banks for doing business with Iran,” said Mr. Kalantri.
According to Siddhartha Rastogi, managing director, Ambit Capital, Iran has $6.5 billion surplus trade with India and Indians can pay Iranians by way of barter amidst sanctions.
“Irani firms can start investing in profitable ventures like Saudi Aramco is doing. Invite large industrialists from India to manufacture products in Iran, that can be bought locally and barter system can be created. Iran is the largest producer of zinc and second largest producer of copper in the world. The world is moving from fossil fuel to batteries operated cars, where zinc is needed,” said Mr. Rastogi.