NEW DELHI: After slow movement in trade and investment relations with Venezuela over the last decade, India is now trying to increase the pace by entering into a double taxation avoidance agreement. The government has asked the Oil & Natural Gas Corporation’s overseas arm, ONGC Videsh Ltd (OVL), to take a lead role in strengthening trade and provide policy inputs.
A Venezuelan delegation is expected in New Delhi over the next week for talks, said a senior government official.
Venezuela is the only non-West Asian founder member of the Organisation of Producing Exporting Countries. It is the fifth largest exporter of crude oil in the world. With the country’s Left-wing president Hugo Chavez being a bitter US-baiter, Venezuela’s trade and investment relations with most countries are in a flux. Chavez has in recent months been wooing China with oil deals.
India’s imports from Venezuela, which were around $160 million in 2000, declined to about $5 million in 2004. Crude oil, valued at $150 million, was the single largest commodity being imported to India in 2000. Private sector refiner Reliance Industries Ltd is the only importer of crude oil from Venezuela, though the quantities it bought also declined.
