Govt mulls position limits hike in jeera, pepper

The government has called a meeting in Delhi today to consider raising the position limits in jeera and pepper futures trading, a senior official of the Forward Markets Commission said. "The meeting has been called after receiving complaints (against reducing position limits in jeera and pepper) from traders," Kewal Ram, member, FMC, said.

Volumes in pepper and jeera futures have declined sharply since FMC slashed position limits that are to be applicable from June 16 on contracts expiring in July and onwards. The regulator halved limits in pepper to 1,500 tonnes for members and 500 tonnes for clients, while for jeera, the near-month limit was reduced to 40 tonnes from 120 tonnes.

This has evoked sharp criticism from exporters and hedgers of these commodities and they have requested the regulator to restore the limits. Earlier, the FMC had maintained that the revised limits would not be restored.

The ministry of consumer affairs will discuss the matter with FMC and officials of the National Commodity and Derivatives Exchange. Futures prices of pepper have already hit the first upper circuit of 4 per cent and jeera also rose over 2 per cent on expectation of relaxation in position limits.