The panel set up to study the impact of futures trade on prices of essential commodities is likely to stick to the August 2 deadline for submitting its report, panel head and Planning Commission member Abhijit Sen said today. | |
| "Hopefully, this time we will not seek an extension," he said. The panel, which was supposed to submit its report in April, had applied for an extension twice. |
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| On Feb 28, Finance Minister P Chidambaram had announced in Parliament that the government has set up an expert committee headed by Abhijit Sen to examine the impact of futures trade on prices of food commodities. |
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| Apart from Abhijit Sen and Kewal Ram, the committee includes Sharad Joshi, Rajya Sabha MP, Prakash Apta, director, Indian Institute of Management at Bangalore, and Siddharth Singh of IIM, Ahmedabad. |
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| The panel is studying the impact of futures trade on wholesale and retail prices of essential commodities and ways to minimise the impact, if any. |
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| It is also deliberating on measures to increase the participation of farmers in price discovery of commodities on exchanges. |
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| The committee's report is crucial for determining the continuity of futures trade in agricultural commodities. |
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| Under pressure from its Left allies to ban futures trade in farm commodities, the government has already asked exchanges to de-list tur and urad contracts and barred futures trade in wheat and rice. |
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