Mumbai: The Centre would accord in-principle approval to set up more multi-commodity exchanges in the country by February next year, Union Minister for Consumer Affairs and Public Distribution Sharad Yadav announced on October 30.

Emphasising the need to make commodity exchanges in the country as progressive as the stock exchanges, Yadav said government was ready to give them any kind of assistance and make them more vibrant.

"There are 21 exchanges in the country, but it is a pity that only a few were functional," he told reporters at the two-day International Conference on Commodity Futures & Derivatives Trading, organised by the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industries (FICCI) in association with United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD).

"We will do something to make more exchanges functional but it will take some time and please do not put more burden on the government," Yadav said.

Earlier, in his address at the conference, Yadav said the government would like to convert the Forward Markets Commission (FMC) into a professional body with complete autonomy in tune with the emerging requirements of commodity derivatives market regulation.

He said his ministry was also pursuing certain amendments to strengthen the legal and institutional framework of futures trading in the country by removing the ban on options, broker registration, further strengthening of the FMC and increasing the time limit of ready delivery contracts from 11 days to 30 days.

The government was intending to liberalise all the commodities, currently prohibited for futures trading, by removing the prohibition in one go, the minister said.

The main areas of concern were the low volume of business in some of the commodities, limited turnover and services provided by the exchanges.

Their contribution to gross domestic product (GDP) would increase directly in proportion to the services provided to the shareholders, Yadav said.

PTI