The Union Government has constituted an expert committee under the chairmanship of Prof. K.K. Abraham, President, Pala marketing Cooperative Society, to examine the various issues in rubber futures trading and make suitable recommendations.
Ms Nutan Raj, Economic Advisor, Forward Marketing Commission, is the Member-Secretary. Currently, there are 11 members in the committee including Dr Sidhararth Sinha, Mr Siby J. Monippally and Mr George Valy.
The expert committee would mainly examine the restriction on the daily volatility from four per cent to one or two per cent and study the transparency in the conduct of futures trading, said Prof K.K. Abraham.
The study also would be relating to quantity, quality and tenure and the details of the traders. It would also deliberate the manner of ensuring physical delivery at least 10 per cent of the trades transacted on the exchange. A second meeting of the committee, held at Kochi, has decided to inform all the stake holders and invite their views in the matter. Rubber growers, traders, manufacturers, brokers etc. could also offer their opinion. Two more members also would join the expert committee representing the tyre industry and the commodity exchanges.
Though the term of the committee has been fixed as three months, it would be further extended to six months. To a question about rubber prices, Prof Abraham said ‘for the present, nothing goes wrong till the end of 2012, but beyond that future looks bit gloomy and prices might seek further lows as the situation changes due to recession in China, the big buyer of the rubber from international market. ‘Most of the natural rubber producing countries are scared over the Euro zone debt crisis and the impact it has on natural rubber.