FMC lets National Multi-Commodity Exchange launch forward contracts

The Forward Markets Commission (FMC) on Wednesday said it has given approval to the National Multi Commodity Exchange (NMCE) to launch forward trading contracts in 17 commodities. 

Ahmedabad-based NMCE is the second bourse after NCDEX that would be launching forward trading. NCDEX is offering forward contracts in 26 commodities at present.

“NMCE has taken approval to launch forward contracts in 17 commodities. The exchange would soon start,” FMC member Nagendra Parakh said on the sidelines of an Assocham event. The country's leading commodity bourse MCX is also in preparation to offer forward contracts, he added.

A forward contract is a bilateral agreement between two parties to buy or sell an asset or a commodity of specified quantity and quality at a future date on a mutually agreed delivery price. Earlier speaking at the Assocham event on commodity futures market, Parakh said the regulator has been taking several measures to strengthen the market after surfacing of the Rs 5,600 crore payment scam in the spot exchange NSEL. He said that the FMC would soon take a decision on allowing 'call auction' and 'liquidity enhancement scheme' as it has already received the public comments on the matter.

Parakh mentioned the regulator is also pushing for early passage of the Forward Contracts (Regulation) Act (FCRA) amendment bill, which aims to give more teeth to FMC and allow other products like option. Demanding scrapping of commodity transaction tax (CTT) and early passage of FCRA amendment fill, MCX Joint Managing Director Parveen Singhal stressed the need to address these two issues urgently to ensure India becomes a global price setter for some of the commodities.

He also shared that MCX has completely come out of the crisis that it was engulfed in following the scam at its erstwhile promoter FTIL's subsidiary NSEL, and maintained the market share of 86 

per cent at present.