The ministry of consumer affairs, food and public distribution is looking to amend various acts in the Constitution including the Essential Commodities Act to accelerate the establishing of the proposed multi-commodity exchanges.
These proposed amendments will be introduced in the next session of Parliament, said Sharad Yadav, minister in charge of the portfolios, at the inauguration of a seminar organized by Federation of Indian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) and United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD).
These amendments will be brought about to remove restrictions on storage and handling of select commodities so that futures trading in them can develop. Currently, futures in commodities are traded in soya, coffee, cotton and jute, among others.
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The list of essential commodities has been pruned in the last few years and today, it has only 18 commmodities. The Forwards Markets Commission (FMC) is trying to bring down this number further.