Government creates JS post for forward markets in Finance Ministry

NEW DELHI: The government has created a post of joint secretary in the Finance Ministry to deal with the forward markets.

"The Union Cabinet has created a post of Joint Secretary in the Department of Economic Affairs of the Finance Ministry. The officer incharge would deal with the issues related to forward markets ... it (the new post) is not to investigate NSEL issue," a source said.

The new officer will look after the Forward Markets Commission and works related with it.

Amid ongoing payment crisis in the National Spot Exchange Ltd (NSEL), the government decided to shift regulation of commodity futures markets from the Consumers Affairs Ministry to Finance Ministry last month.

Consumer Affairs Ministry had been overseeing the functioning of the FMC, which regulates futures trading on 21 commodity bourses, including MCX and NCDEX.

The Finance Ministry oversees operations of several regulators, including Sebi, Irda and PFRDA. Bringing FMC under the purview of the Finance Ministry will ensure better coordination of regulators.

The proposal to bring FMC under the purview of Finance Ministry was moved after a payment crisis of Rs 5,600 crore surfaced in the NSEL.