Abhijit Sen committee, appointed by the government to look into the impact of futures trading on farm commodity prices, has got an extension of two months.
The government has extended the deadline of the Sen committee after it sought two more months' time for submission of the report, an official said.
The government had set up the five-member expert committee, headed by Planning Commission member Abhijit Sen, to study the extent of impact, if any, of Futures trading on wholesale and retail prices of agricultural commodities as per the announcement made by finance minister P Chidambaram while presenting the Budget for 2007-08.
While issuing the notification on March 2, the consumer affairs ministry had asked the panel to submit its report in two months' time, which expired on May 1. Now, the Sen panel will have to submit its report by July 1 this year.
The committee, currently undertaking technical studies related to the issue, has no plan to submit any interim report and would come out with a full and final report. The committee would also suggest ways to increase farmers' role in the Futures market or trading so that they are able to get the benefit of price discovery.
Other members of the committee are Rajya Sabha MP Sharad Joshi, Forward Markets Commission member Kewal Ram, Prakash Apte of Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore and Siddharth Sinha of IIM-Ahmedabad.
