Budget 2023 | Bring down commodities exchange transaction cost, say experts

Expectations from the budget 2023 in the agriculture and commodities space would be whether the government would revise the commodity transaction tax, which led to a fall in commodity derivative trade volumes.

The Economic Survey tabled in Parliament today by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and released by Chief Economic Advisor Anantha Nageswaran lays emphasis on ensuring certainty of returns to farmers through price support. As per the Survey, the government aims to promote crop diversification and to augment crop and livestock productivity.

Siraj Hussain, Senior Visiting Fellow at Indian Council for Research on International Economic Relations, also Former Agriculture Secretary and Kunal Shah, Head of Commodities and Currency Research at Nirmal Bang shared their views.

“It is high time where we come to a point where the transaction cost on the commodities exchanges in India should be brought down,” said Shah.

As for the agriculture sector, there has been mention of fund allocation for post-harvest logistics, digitisation and cattle insurance among others.

FM is set to present the Budget on February 1 at 11 am. This year's Budget comes against the backdrop of intense geopolitical tensions, rising inflation and national elections nearing.

The global commodity space has started 2023 in a good way. Gold prices are heading for the third monthly gain in January. Metals like zinc, aluminum and copper and commodities like sugar and rubber are also seeing a positive start of the year. But few commodities like silver are seeing a decline and trading in the negative. With major meetings like the US Fed meet, monetary policy meetings in major banks ahead, how will the global commodity markets get affected? What is the outlook for Indian commodity sector, ahead of the Indian Budget session on February 1? Peter McGuire, CEO at XM Australia discussed this in detail.