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Government would soon be introducing the “Warehousing Development and Regulation Bill” in the Parliament to streamline and upgrade the warehousing infrastructure in the country, said Shri Sharad Pawar, Minister of Agriculture, Consumer affairs, Food and Public Distribution in Mumbai today. Inaugurating electronic networking of Agricultural Produce Marketing Committee (APMC) Markets in Maharashtra, by the Multi Commodity Exchange of India Limited (MCX), the Minister said, the main concern of his Ministry was to put in place an appropriate market infrastructure that could ensure remunerative prices for the farmers’ produce without any intervention by the Government. Futures trading activity should be taken as a major thrust area to provide the much-needed risk management and price discovery functions in this sector. This has become crucial for checking uncertainty in prices in the perspective of removal of controls and regulations, he said.
Shri Pawar pointed out that the efforts of the Government to develop the commodity futures markets had yielded results. The total value of commodity futures trade during 2004-05 has increased by 341 per cent touching a staggering figure of Rs. 5.71 lakh crore which is about 20 per cent of the Gross Domestic Product. However, the Minister said that much more had to be done in this area to match international standards and to benefit the genuine stake holders who invested in these markets for hedging purposes. While it is the responsibility of the Government to provide a regulatory environment conducive for the market participants to take advantage of the futures market, it is the ability of the exchanges and their participants to fully utilize the emerging opportunities in commodity futures trading. In this regard the Minister said the Government would be introducing necessary legal and statutory provisions by carrying out amendments to the Forward Contract (Regulation) Act, 1952. Once the amendments are passed, all stake holders would have ample opportunity to innovate and flourish, he added.
Shri Sharad Pawar, who inaugurated the electronic linking of APMC (Agricultural Produce Marketing Committee) markets in Maharashtra hoped that this initiative would bring a significant achievement for agriculture marketing in the country. This would be followed by the networking of more markets in various States and across regions not only by MCX Limited but also by other leading commodity exchanges in the country, he hoped.
SB/NSR
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