diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index a9c2f43..a9f5863 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -53,6 +53,7 @@ This library requires following options:
 * `delimiter`: (Optional) Set the field delimiter. Applicable only for csv fileType. Default is comma.
 * `quote`: (Optional) Set the quote character. Applicable only for csv fileType. Default is ".
 * `escape`: (Optional) Set the escape character. Applicable only for csv fileType. Default is \.
+* `encoding`: (Optional) Set the file encoding. Applicable only for the csv fileType. Default is UTF-8.
 * `multiLine`: (Optional) Set the multiline. Applicable only for csv fileType. Default is false.
 * `codec`: (Optional) Applicable only for csv fileType. Compression codec to use when saving to file. Should be the fully qualified name of a class implementing org.apache.hadoop.io.compress.CompressionCodec or one of case-insensitive shorten names (bzip2, gzip, lz4, and snappy). Defaults to no compression when a codec is not specified.
 
diff --git a/src/main/scala/com/springml/spark/sftp/DatasetRelation.scala b/src/main/scala/com/springml/spark/sftp/DatasetRelation.scala
index 60b341c..65c75b9 100644
--- a/src/main/scala/com/springml/spark/sftp/DatasetRelation.scala
+++ b/src/main/scala/com/springml/spark/sftp/DatasetRelation.scala
@@ -18,6 +18,7 @@ case class DatasetRelation(
     delimiter: String,
     quote: String,
     escape: String,
+    encoding: String,
     multiLine: String,
     rowTag: String,
     customSchema: StructType,
@@ -46,6 +47,7 @@ case class DatasetRelation(
           option("delimiter", delimiter).
           option("quote", quote).
           option("escape", escape).
+          option("encoding", encoding).
           option("multiLine", multiLine).
           option("inferSchema", inferSchema).
           csv(fileLocation)
diff --git a/src/main/scala/com/springml/spark/sftp/DefaultSource.scala b/src/main/scala/com/springml/spark/sftp/DefaultSource.scala
index a62e57a..b2133fd 100644
--- a/src/main/scala/com/springml/spark/sftp/DefaultSource.scala
+++ b/src/main/scala/com/springml/spark/sftp/DefaultSource.scala
@@ -57,6 +57,7 @@ class DefaultSource extends RelationProvider with SchemaRelationProvider with Cr
     val header = parameters.getOrElse("header", "true")
     val delimiter = parameters.getOrElse("delimiter", ",")
     val quote = parameters.getOrElse("quote", "\"")
+    val encoding = parameters.getOrElse("encoding", "UTF-8")
     val escape = parameters.getOrElse("escape", "\\")
     val multiLine = parameters.getOrElse("multiLine", "false")
     val createDF = parameters.getOrElse("createDF", "true")
@@ -87,7 +88,7 @@ class DefaultSource extends RelationProvider with SchemaRelationProvider with Cr
       logger.info("Returning an empty dataframe after copying files...")
       createReturnRelation(sqlContext, schema)
     } else {
-      DatasetRelation(fileLocation, fileType, inferSchemaFlag, header, delimiter, quote, escape, multiLine, rowTag, schema,
+      DatasetRelation(fileLocation, fileType, inferSchemaFlag, header, delimiter, quote, escape, encoding, multiLine, rowTag, schema,
         sqlContext)
     }
   }
@@ -115,6 +116,7 @@ class DefaultSource extends RelationProvider with SchemaRelationProvider with Cr
     val delimiter = parameters.getOrElse("delimiter", ",")
     val quote = parameters.getOrElse("quote", "\"")
     val escape = parameters.getOrElse("escape", "\\")
+    val encoding = parameters.getOrElse("encoding", "UTF-8")
     val multiLine = parameters.getOrElse("multiLine", "false")
     val codec = parameters.getOrElse("codec", null)
     val rowTag = parameters.getOrElse(constants.xmlRowTag, null)
@@ -127,7 +129,7 @@ class DefaultSource extends RelationProvider with SchemaRelationProvider with Cr
 
     val sftpClient = getSFTPClient(username, password, pemFileLocation, pemPassphrase, host, port,
       cryptoKey, cryptoAlgorithm)
-    val tempFile = writeToTemp(sqlContext, data, hdfsTemp, tmpFolder, fileType, header, delimiter, quote, escape, multiLine, codec, rowTag, rootTag)
+    val tempFile = writeToTemp(sqlContext, data, hdfsTemp, tmpFolder, fileType, header, delimiter, quote, escape, encoding, multiLine, codec, rowTag, rootTag)
 
     upload(tempFile, path, sftpClient)
     return createReturnRelation(data)
@@ -234,7 +236,7 @@ class DefaultSource extends RelationProvider with SchemaRelationProvider with Cr
 
   private def writeToTemp(sqlContext: SQLContext, df: DataFrame,
                           hdfsTemp: String, tempFolder: String, fileType: String, header: String,
-                          delimiter: String, quote: String, escape: String, multiLine: String, codec: String, rowTag: String, rootTag: String) : String = {
+                          delimiter: String, quote: String, escape: String, encoding: String, multiLine: String, codec: String, rowTag: String, rootTag: String) : String = {
     val randomSuffix = "spark_sftp_connection_temp_" + UUID.randomUUID
     val hdfsTempLocation = hdfsTemp + File.separator + randomSuffix
     val localTempLocation = tempFolder + File.separator + randomSuffix
@@ -252,6 +254,7 @@ class DefaultSource extends RelationProvider with SchemaRelationProvider with Cr
                     option("delimiter", delimiter).
                     option("quote", quote).
                     option("escape", escape).
+                    option("encoding", encoding).
                     option("multiLine", multiLine).
                     optionNoNull("codec", Option(codec)).
                     csv(hdfsTempLocation)
diff --git a/src/test/resources/sample_utf-32be.csv b/src/test/resources/sample_utf-32be.csv
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..9bc2a06
Binary files /dev/null and b/src/test/resources/sample_utf-32be.csv differ
diff --git a/src/test/scala/com/springml/spark/sftp/CustomSchemaTest.scala b/src/test/scala/com/springml/spark/sftp/CustomSchemaTest.scala
index 0a190e5..f0d01a5 100644
--- a/src/test/scala/com/springml/spark/sftp/CustomSchemaTest.scala
+++ b/src/test/scala/com/springml/spark/sftp/CustomSchemaTest.scala
@@ -43,7 +43,7 @@ class CustomSchemaTest extends FunSuite with BeforeAndAfterEach {
     val expectedSchema = StructType(columnStruct)
 
     val fileLocation = getClass.getResource("/sample.csv").getPath
-    val dsr = DatasetRelation(fileLocation, "csv", "false", "true", ",", "\"", "\\", "false", null, expectedSchema, ss.sqlContext)
+    val dsr = DatasetRelation(fileLocation, "csv", "false", "true", ",", "\"", "\\", "UTF-8", "false", null, expectedSchema, ss.sqlContext)
     val rdd = dsr.buildScan()
 
     assert(dsr.schema.fields.length == columnStruct.length)
@@ -55,7 +55,7 @@ class CustomSchemaTest extends FunSuite with BeforeAndAfterEach {
     val expectedSchema = StructType(columnStruct)
 
     val fileLocation = getClass.getResource("/people.json").getPath
-    val dsr = DatasetRelation(fileLocation, "json", "false", "true", ",", "\"", "\\", "false", null, expectedSchema, ss.sqlContext)
+    val dsr = DatasetRelation(fileLocation, "json", "false", "true", ",", "\"", "\\", "UTF-8", "false", null, expectedSchema, ss.sqlContext)
     val rdd = dsr.buildScan()
 
     assert(dsr.schema.fields.length == columnStruct.length)
diff --git a/src/test/scala/com/springml/spark/sftp/TestDatasetRelation.scala b/src/test/scala/com/springml/spark/sftp/TestDatasetRelation.scala
index fb7527a..d50d56e 100644
--- a/src/test/scala/com/springml/spark/sftp/TestDatasetRelation.scala
+++ b/src/test/scala/com/springml/spark/sftp/TestDatasetRelation.scala
@@ -1,6 +1,7 @@
 package com.springml.spark.sftp
 
 import org.apache.spark.sql.SparkSession
+import org.apache.spark.sql.types._
 import org.scalatest.{BeforeAndAfterEach, FunSuite}
 
 /**
@@ -15,63 +16,81 @@ class TestDatasetRelation extends FunSuite with BeforeAndAfterEach {
 
   test ("Read CSV") {
     val fileLocation = getClass.getResource("/sample.csv").getPath
-    val dsr = DatasetRelation(fileLocation, "csv", "false", "true", ",", "\"", "\\", "false", null, null, ss.sqlContext)
+    val dsr = DatasetRelation(fileLocation, "csv", "false", "true", ",", "\"", "\\", "UTF-8","false", null, null, ss.sqlContext)
     val rdd = dsr.buildScan()
     assert(3 == rdd.count())
   }
 
   test ("Read CSV using custom delimiter") {
     val fileLocation = getClass.getResource("/sample.csv").getPath
-    val dsr = DatasetRelation(fileLocation, "csv", "false", "true", ";", "\"", "\\", "false", null, null, ss.sqlContext)
+    val dsr = DatasetRelation(fileLocation, "csv", "false", "true", ";", "\"", "\\", "UTF-8", "false", null, null, ss.sqlContext)
     val rdd = dsr.buildScan()
     assert(3 == rdd.count())
   }
 
   test ("Read multiline CSV using custom quote and escape") {
     val fileLocation = getClass.getResource("/sample_quoted_multiline.csv").getPath
-    val dsr = DatasetRelation(fileLocation, "csv", "false", "true", ",", "\"", "\\", "true", null, null, ss.sqlContext)
+    val dsr = DatasetRelation(fileLocation, "csv", "false", "true", ",", "\"", "\\", "UTF-8", "true", null, null, ss.sqlContext)
     val rdd = dsr.buildScan()
     assert(3 == rdd.count())
   }
 
+  test ("Read CSV encoded as UTF-32be") {
+    val schema = StructType( Array(
+                 StructField("ProposalId", StringType,true),
+                 StructField("OpportunityId", StringType,true),
+                 StructField("Clicks", StringType,true),
+                 StructField("Impressions", StringType,true),
+                 StructField("Currency", StringType,true)
+             ))
+
+    val fileLocation = getClass.getResource("/sample_utf-32be.csv").getPath
+    val dsr = DatasetRelation(fileLocation, "csv", "false", "true", ",", "\"", "\\", "UTF-32BE", "true", null, null, ss.sqlContext)
+    val rdd = dsr.buildScan()
+    val df = ss.createDataFrame(rdd, schema)
+    assert(5 == df.columns.size)
+    assert("£" == df.head.getString(4))
+    assert(3 == rdd.count())
+  }
+
 
   test ("Read JSON") {
     val fileLocation = getClass.getResource("/people.json").getPath
-    val dsr = DatasetRelation(fileLocation, "json", "false", "true", ",", "\"", "\\", "false", null, null, ss.sqlContext)
+    val dsr = DatasetRelation(fileLocation, "json", "false", "true", ",", "\"", "\\", "UTF-8", "false", null, null, ss.sqlContext)
     val rdd = dsr.buildScan()
     assert(3 == rdd.count())
   }
 
   test ("Read AVRO") {
     val fileLocation = getClass.getResource("/users.avro").getPath
-    val dsr = DatasetRelation(fileLocation, "avro", "false", "true", ",", "\"", "\\", "false", null, null, ss.sqlContext)
+    val dsr = DatasetRelation(fileLocation, "avro", "false", "true", ",", "\"", "\\", "UTF-8", "false", null, null, ss.sqlContext)
     val rdd = dsr.buildScan()
     assert(2 == rdd.count())
   }
 
   test ("Read parquet") {
     val fileLocation = getClass.getResource("/users.parquet").getPath
-    val dsr = DatasetRelation(fileLocation, "parquet", "false", "true", ",", "\"", "\\", "false", null, null, ss.sqlContext)
+    val dsr = DatasetRelation(fileLocation, "parquet", "false", "true", ",", "\"", "\\", "UTF-8", "false", null, null, ss.sqlContext)
     val rdd = dsr.buildScan()
     assert(2 == rdd.count())
   }
 
   test ("Read text file") {
     val fileLocation = getClass.getResource("/plaintext.txt").getPath
-    val dsr = DatasetRelation(fileLocation, "txt", "false", "true", ",", "\"", "\\", "false", null, null, ss.sqlContext)
+    val dsr = DatasetRelation(fileLocation, "txt", "false", "true", ",", "\"", "\\", "UTF-8", "false", null, null, ss.sqlContext)
     val rdd = dsr.buildScan()
     assert(3 == rdd.count())
   }
 
   test ("Read xml file") {
     val fileLocation = getClass.getResource("/books.xml").getPath
-    val dsr = DatasetRelation(fileLocation, "xml", "false", "true", ",", "\"", "\\", "false", "book", null, ss.sqlContext)
+    val dsr = DatasetRelation(fileLocation, "xml", "false", "true", ",", "\"", "\\", "UTF-8", "false", "book", null, ss.sqlContext)
     val rdd = dsr.buildScan()
     assert(12 == rdd.count())
   }
   test ("Read orc file") {
     val fileLocation = getClass.getResource("/books.orc").getPath
-    val dsr = DatasetRelation(fileLocation, "orc", "false", "true", ",", "\"", "\\", "false", "book", null, ss.sqlContext)
+    val dsr = DatasetRelation(fileLocation, "orc", "false", "true", ",", "\"", "\\", "UTF-8", "false", "book", null, ss.sqlContext)
     val rdd = dsr.buildScan()
     assert(12 == rdd.count())
   }