India has said that it is ready to pay $1.5 billion to Iran to clear part of a backlog of payments for shipments of oil after the partial easing of western sanctions on Tehran. Petroleum Secretray Vivek Rae said that the payments would be made as soon as the banking modalities are worked out. Tehran is allowed to receive $450 million from India on March 1 if it satisfies targets set down in the November deal with P5+1 group of nations.It can then receive two further tranches of $550 million on March 7 and April 10. India sharply raised imports from Iran last month. However total shipments from April 2013 through January this year , averaged around 200,000 barrels per month. This is 26 percent less than an year ago. Indian refineries have withheld 55 percent of the payment to Iran which was routed through Turkey's Halk Bank due to from sanctions. Indian refineries now owe roughly $3 billion for Iranian crude, and the $1.5 billion in scheduled payments will clear around half of that. Meanwhile, the remaining 45 percent has been kept in rupees in UCO Bank, which is being used by Tehran for importing goods from India.Under the interim nuclear deal with six major world powers, Iran can access $4.2 billion in oil payments from a number of countries that has been frozen abroad. The funds will be paid in eight transfers on a schedule that started with a $550 million payment by Japan on February 1.South Korea is set to make two payments in March around $1 billion and the next scheduled tranche of oil funds would come on April 10. Payments from April 15 onwards will be made only if Teheran confirms that it has diluted all of its 20 percent enriched uranium to not more than 5 percent enriched uranium.