Govt to fix paid-up capital of commodity exchanges at Rs 500m
REPUBLICA
KATHAMNDU, Aug 12: The government is preparing to make it mandatory for commodity market operators to have paid-up capital of at least Rs 500 million.
Amid growing concern over anomalies, including poor management, weak infrastructure, inadequate capital and opaque transactions process in commodity exchanges, the Security Board of Nepal (Sebon) -- the capital market regulator - is preparing to incorporate host of measures in the upcoming Commodities Market Regulations to regulate the market.
“We are proposing paid-up capital of at least Rs 500 million for commodity market operators so as to ensure that they provide better and reliable service to investors,” Nabaraj Adhikari, deputy director of Sebon, said.
Speaking at a program on ´Challenges and Future of Commodities Market in Nepal´ organized by Society of Economic Journalists-Nepal (SEJON) on Sunday, Adhikari also said Sebon will propose paid-up capital of Rs 100 million and Rs 10 million respectively for clearing and non-clearing agents working on behalf of the commodity exchanges.
Adhikari also said Sebon was preparing to issue a guideline as a stop-gap measure to regulate the commodities market in the absence of Commodities Market Act.
Though the government has almost finalized the Act, its enactment has been affected in the absence of parliament.
Baburam Shrestha, chairman of Sebon, also said formulation of guidelines for commodities market operation would be finalized within a couple of months. “We can partially regulate the commodities and derivatives market once the guidelines are finalized,” Shrestha said, urging commodities market operators to come up with a code of conduct for self regulation in the absence of legal provision to regulate them.
Speaking on the occasion, Santosh Pradhan, director of Nepal Derivatives Exchange (Ndex), shed light on the growing malpractices in the commodities market in the absence of a regulatory body. “In the lack of legal provision specifying capital structure, management and infrastructure of commodities market, we have seen anomalies in the market,” Pradhan said. “Commodities exchanges have been opened at an investment of as low as Rs 2.5 million, putting money of investors at risk,” he added.
At present, there are four commodity exchanges and 200 brokers. Around 20,000 investors have put their money in commodities and derivatives market.
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Govt To Fix Paid-up Capital Of Commodity Exchanges At Rs 500m
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