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By the early 2017, out of the 1 13 commodities notified for futures trading, 43 were actively traded in 4 national exchanges and 6 commodity-specific exchanges. Share of agricultural commodities in the total turnover was over 20 per cent in
2015–16, with food items (refined soya oil, soyabean, chana, coriander and rapeseed/mustard seed) contributing over 50 per cent of it. The remaining (80 per cent) turnover was contributed by bullion, metals and energy contracts.
A Committee set up by the Ministry of Finance, which submitted its report in April 2014, and has observed that hedging efficiency of the commodity futures markets is low. In order to ensure that forward markets in commodities are well regulated and the Indian commodity futures market is compliant with international regulatory requirements, the regulatory framework for the commodity futures market needs to be strengthened at the earliest. The Government of India decided to merge the commodity market regulator, the Forward Market Commission (FMC) with the Security & Exchange Board of India (SEBI) in 2015–16 with enhanced and effective regulatory power given to it.