The Finance Ministry is learnt to have interviewed five candidates to find a replacement for Ramesh Abhishek, Chairman of Forward Markets Commission. The incumbent FMC Chairman’s term expires in January next year.

Among the five candidates who were interviewed last Thursday are MS Sahoo, former whole-time member of SEBI, Nagendra Parakh, member of FMC and Usha Suresh, Economic Adviser, FMC. An IAS officer who is currently on a World Bank assignment has also attended the interview held in New Delhi.

The FMC chief draws a monthly salary of ₹1.50 lakh while the other two members – M Mathisekaran and Nagendra Parakh – draw about ₹1.32 lakh and ₹1.69 lakh per month.

Suits against NSEL

The term of Abhishek, who was appointed as Chairman of FMC in 2012, was extended in July this year in the midst of settlement of default worth ₹5,600-crore in the National Spot Exchange.

Though the spot exchange was not regulated by FMC, the Government has entrusted the settlement issue with the regulator.

Harried investors have filed multiple cases against NSEL and its promoter Financial Technologies in the High Court.

This apart, the trading volumes on the commodity exchanges have been falling steadily for the last one year due to the new commodity transaction tax and the recent scam in NSEL. The Commission has been taking proactive measures to boost traders and hedgers’ interest in commodity trading. The Government’s proposal to amend the Forward Commodity Regulation Act to make FMC an autonomous body has been pending since last few years.

Rich experience

Sahoo, an Indian Economic Service officer of 1985 batch, has over three decades of experience in private and public sector, besides in regulatory and Government bodies. He was involved in varied functional areas such as reforms, policy, regulations, research and analysis.

Parakh, a rank holder Chartered Accountant and Company Secretary joined FMC in July last year. During his stint in SEBI, he was involved in various reforms in the securities market such as on-line trading, dematerialisation and rolling settlement.

He was the key person behind introduction of the equity derivatives market and trade plus two rolling settlements in the securities Markets.

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