FMC awaits FCRA amendment to decide on pulses trading

The Forward Markets Commission (FMC) today said it would take a call on lifting trading ban on two pulses -- tur and urad -- once amendment is made to the Forward Contracts Regulation Act (FCRA).

"The Parliamentary Standing Committee report is already out indicating that the price rise has no links with futures trading.

"However, we are awaiting the passage of FCRA Bill amendment that seek to vest the FMC with more autonomy, before taking any decision on lifting the trading ban on tur and urad," FMC Chairman Ramesh Abhishek told reporters here on the sidelines of the Global Pulses Conclave here.

At present, only chana is traded on the futures markets among the pulses. Both tur and urad were banned from futures trading in January 2007 to put a curb on the rising prices of these two pulses.

"We are hoping that the amendment will be introduced in Parliament this year," he added.

He said there was a need for more participation from farmers as well as consumers for efficient price-discovery mechanism to get more transparent.

"Along with the futures market, we also need good physical markets, warehousing and credit linkages for better price-discovery," he added.

About the turnover, Abhishek said the commodity exchanges were expected to touch Rs 1,70,00,000 crore in the current fiscal mainly due to higher participation of bullion and agri products. The turnover stood at Rs 1,19,48,000 crore last fiscal, he said.

There are five national -- MCX, NCDEX, NMCE, ICEX and ACE -- and 16 regional commodity exchanges in the country.