To reduce the current account deficit (CAD), the Union Oil Ministry has worked out a plan, which can save $22 billion in the oil import bill from Iran, said the Union Petroleum Minister M Veerappa Moily. The Minister said that import of oil is one of the components responsible for CAD. The Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has told the Ministry to save $25 billion in the import bill. And accordingly, the Ministry has prepared a plan to save $22 billion in import bill, Moily said.
India, after not buying any oil from Iran in first four months of the current fiscal, has now resumed this month with the State-run Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals (MRPL) getting the first tanker-load.
Moily said on August 27 that the savings would be around one per cent of the GDP.
The Ministry’s plan includes renewing imports from sanctions-hit Iran, which India pays in rupees thereby saving foreign exchange and reducing the CAD.
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