Decision on forward trading only after Abhijit Sen report: Govt

New Delhi, Mar 6 (UNI) Finance Minister P Chidambaram today categorically ruled out banning forward trading in foodgrains for the time being, saying the Government will wait for the Abhijit Sen Committee report.

When Members, including Chairman of the Committee on Unorganised Labour Arjun Sengupta, during Question Hour in the Rajya Sabha sought to know why the ban on forward trading was not being imposed despite the Parliament's Standing Committee recommendation, the Finance Minister said the final decision would be taken by the Agriculture Ministry and it was perusing the report.

Moreover, the Government was awaiting the Abhijit Sen Committee report on the issues, and there was also a Bill in Parliament on the amendment in the forward commission, he added.

Replying to the concerns expressed over the rise in Consumer Price Index, he said there were both global and domestic factors like rise in the prices of crude, poor procurement of foodgrains and poor supplies which affected the prices.

The increase in the rate was primarily due to a high rate of inflation of food articles which has a substantial weightage in the commodity basket of indices.

The CPI-based inflation rate for the Agricultural labourers (CPI-AL) and Rural Labourers (CPI-RL) for December 2006 was 8.94 per cent and 8.31 per cent respectively, said the Minister.

UNI