Government likely to consider FCRA bill tomorrow

NEW DELHI: The government is likely to take a decision tomorrow on a bill that seeks to provide more powers to commodity market regulator Forward Markets Commission (FMC) and introduction of products like options.

"The Cabinet is likely to take up the Forward Contract Regulation Act (Amendment) Bill tomorrow," a senior Consumer Affairs Ministry official said.

The FCRA amendment bill has been deferred several times in the past few months because of opposition by then UPA ally Trinamool Congress (TMC).

With TMC withdrawing its support from the UPA government, the FCRA amendment bill has again been listed in the Cabinet's agenda for tomorrow.

The Forward Contract Regulation Act (FCRA) (Amendment) Bill is considered essential for development of commodities futures trade as it aims to strengthen FMC by providing it financial autonomy.

The Bill also facilitates the entry of institutional investors and aims to pave the way for introduction of new products for trading such as options and futures.

At present, the country has five national and 16 regional level commodity exchanges in the country. Recently, the FMC gave approval to the Universal Commodity Exchange to operate as a national bourse.