Govt limits number of commodity bourses at 8

The government has decided to cap the number of national commodity exchanges at eight to foster sustained growth of the commodity futures market. “The Consumer Affairs Ministry in consultation with the sector regulator FMC has decided to allow only eight commodity exchanges to function at the national level,” a senior official told journalists.

At present, four national exchanges — MCX, NCDEX, NMCE and ICEX are operating at national level, while the rest two — Ahmedabad Commodity Exchange (ACE) and the Universal Commodity Exchange (UCE) are yet to be launched.

Recently, Gontermann Peipers (India), promoted by Pramod Mittal of the Ispat group, has placed an application with FMC for setting up a national commodity exchange.

The Consumer Affairs Ministry frames policies for commodity futures market, while the Forward Markets Commission (FMC) regulates the functioning of four national and 19 regional exchanges.