Futures trade panel may submit report by August 2

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.

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.

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.

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.

It is also deliberating on measures to increase the participation of farmers in price discovery of commodities on exchanges.

The committee's report is crucial for determining the continuity of futures trade in agricultural commodities.

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.