PTI

Chandigarh: State-owned MMTC Ltd, plans to set up a commodity exchange in Haryana at an investment of Rs100 crore and has requested the state government to allot two acres of land in Gurgaon.

It had earlier announced its plans of setting up this exchange in joint venture with brokerage firm Indiabulls in which it would have a 26% stake.

AR Goyal, director, MMTC informed that they were looking for financial institutions who could partner in the venture. However, MMTC is still awaiting the approval of commodity exchange regulator Forward Market Commission for this project.

Once approved by FMC, it would be the fourth commodity exchange after the Multi-Commodity Exchange of India, National Commodity & Derivatives Exchange and National Multi-Commodity Exchange of India.

The commodity exchange would be the second project of MMTC in Haryana as it had already committed an investment of Rs147 crore for setting up a gold refinery and a medallion manufacturing unit at Mewat in the state in collaboration with a Swiss company PAMP.

On being asked about import of gold, Asheesh Majumdar, chief general manager MMTC said the company would import 130 tonnes of gold and 550 tonnes of silver during 2008-09. “Last year, we imported 124 tonnes of gold and 500 tonnes of silver and this year, we expect it to reach 130 tonnes and 550 tonnes for gold and silver respectively,” he said.

Terming the downfall in import of gold as ‘temporary phenomena´, he said the demand for the precious metal would firm up again in domestic market and would remain between 10-13% in the current fiscal.