Regional exchanges seek lower member registration fees

Demand nominal rate of Rs 10,000 per broker instead of uniform registration fee of Rs 50,000 as being proposed

Regional commexes have expressed their concerns over registration fee, which the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) proposes to charge from their members. At present, there are three regional commodity exchanges and have 329 members as on March 2015.The commodity exchanges in Rajkot and Hapur have requested the regulator to either do away with such fee or charge at a nominal rate of Rs 10,000 per broker instead of the uniform registration fee of Rs 50,000. While the Rajkot Commodity Exchange (RCX) is known for castor trading, Hapur is known for mustard contracts in India.

“Rs 50,000 is a very big amount for the brokers active in regional commodity exchanges. We have urged Sebi not to impose any fee or charge nominally,” said Rohit Garg, chairman of Hapur Chamber of Commerce know as Hapur Commodity Exchange in Uttar Pradesh. The Hapur Exchange has 200 members and has a daily turnover of about Rs 80-100 crore.



The Rajkot Commodity Exchange has also told Sebi that one-time registration fee should be Rs 10,000 or less. "Regional exchanges are still in the growing stage and are very small. We have, therefore, urged officials member registration fee should be less to make it affordable for members," said P B Pathak, executive director of RCX.

Of the total 101 broker members, currently 22 are active at RCX which sees a daily turnover of Rs 35 crore.