Futures panel to steer clear of ban

Agriculture expert and member of the committee Sharad Joshi said the panel would not say anything on the desirability or otherwise of futures trading in farm goods, reports Gaurav Choudhury.

The expert committee set up to study the impact of futures trading on prices is unlikely to make definite recommendations on the contentious issue of a ban.

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Agriculture expert and member of the committee Sharad Joshi said the panel would not say anything on the desirability or otherwise of futures trading in farm goods.

“The main body of the report will not have anything on banning or removing restrictions on futures trading,” Joshi told Hindustan Times.

Draft recommendations of the panel headed by Planning Commission member Abhijit Sen have been opposed by the majority of its members. Besides Joshi, the other members are Forward Markets Commission member Kewal Ram, Prakash Apte of the Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore, and Siddharth Sinha of IIM Ahmedabad.

The draft suggestions say the Centre manages to insulate domestic wheat prices by a ban on futures trading in that grain, a contention most of the members disagree with.

To resolve differences, Sen convened meeting of all the members on Wednesday. The meeting, which lasted for over three hours, arrived at a consensus on submitting a common minimum report (CMR) to the government in the next few days.