Commodity market regulator Forward Market Commission (FMC) has said that exchanges are free to fix their transaction fees within the prescribed range of Re 1 to Rs 4 on a business turnover of Rs 1,00,000. “Commodity exchanges have the discretion to take a commercial decision on the transaction fee within the range prescribed,” said FMC Chairman BC Khatua.
The comment has come at a time when national-level exchanges NCDEX and NMCE are mulling a cut in transaction fees after leading bourse MCX decided to slash the charge from November 2. Transaction fee of an exchange is paid by members and is calculated at the rate of every Rs 1,00,000 of business and on the basis of their daily turnover on the bourse.
Last week, MCX reduced transaction charges to Rs 2.50 for members whose average daily turnover is up to Rs 250 crore. It has fixed the transaction charge at Rs 1.25 on a turnover between Rs 250 crore and Rs 1,000 crore. And those having more than Rs 1,000 crore business will have to pay Re 1. Khatua said that even MCX did not seek FMC’s approval for lowering fees.