Sen panel set to meet deadline, may skirt direct answers
There could be more than a touch of irony in the timing of the report on forward trade, which is likely to end up making a case for lifting the ban on futures trade on dal and wheat.
By Prabha Jagannathan, TNN |
NEW DELHI: There could be more than a touch of irony in the timing of the report on forward trade, which is likely to end up making a case for lifting the ban on futures trade on dal and wheat.
Even as the government fields opposition from the Left on the nuke deal, the expert committee chaired by Abhijit Sen, set to submit its recommendations by month end, could just add some more fuel to the Left fury. There are indications that it may skirt any direct references to whether the ban on forward trading in these commodities (urad and tur and wheat) should be lifted now.
However, the panel’s positive tenor on its key brief is expected to pave the way for the removal of the trade bans sooner rather than later.
The committee was set up to determine whether futures trading in wheat, rice and pulses pushed up their prices last year and to suggest measures to make the market conducive to farmers. Interestingly, it was the Left that pressured the government to ban futures in wheat and urad and tur dal on the contention that it provoked high domestic prices for essential commodities and spiked inflation.
Commodity trade analysts have contended that a number of factors in the global and domestic commodity markets spurred prices upward at the time of the ban (dals in January 2007 and wheat in February) and that the blame could not be laid solely at the door of commodities forward trading.
Even as the government fields opposition from the Left on the nuke deal, the expert committee chaired by Abhijit Sen, set to submit its recommendations by month end, could just add some more fuel to the Left fury. There are indications that it may skirt any direct references to whether the ban on forward trading in these commodities (urad and tur and wheat) should be lifted now.
However, the panel’s positive tenor on its key brief is expected to pave the way for the removal of the trade bans sooner rather than later.
The committee was set up to determine whether futures trading in wheat, rice and pulses pushed up their prices last year and to suggest measures to make the market conducive to farmers. Interestingly, it was the Left that pressured the government to ban futures in wheat and urad and tur dal on the contention that it provoked high domestic prices for essential commodities and spiked inflation.
Commodity trade analysts have contended that a number of factors in the global and domestic commodity markets spurred prices upward at the time of the ban (dals in January 2007 and wheat in February) and that the blame could not be laid solely at the door of commodities forward trading.
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