India's leading national commodity exchanges have asked the government to immediately lift the ban on futures trading on certain agricultural commodities.
The government had banned futures trading in commodities like urad, tur, wheat and rice in the wake of price rise in essential food items, leading to inflation.
A committee appointed by the government is these days studying the impact of futures trading on inflation. The committee headed by Abhijit Sen, member of the Planning Commission, is to submit its report to the government in two months.
Presentation their cases before the Sen committee, the commodity exchanges said that the ban on futures trading in certain agricultural commodities should go even before the panel's findings.
Laman Rutten,
joint managing director of Multi Commodity Exchange said that the ban on trading in commodities like urad, tur, wheat and rice has caused concern in the international market.
"We all hope that the government would revoke the suspension soon," he told reporters.
Rutten said global interest in Indian commodities market was large and the suspension of trading in certain commodities had caused concern among overseas players.
According to him, suspension of futures trading is a very rare case. "It had happened only in China in the early 1990s and instances prior to that went way back to the 1950s," Rutten said.
"We have presented our case to the Abhijit Sen committee. We the government would take steps to revoke the suspension," he added.