"We have already received the statements of interest from these institutions and are awaiting necessary clearances from the government," said Soyabean Processors Association of India (Sopa) director AS Jeyakumar.

The SBoT has adopted a constitution as well as the bye-laws and finalising technical vendors will be concluded soon. The exchange, is to initially have a limited membership trading volume of the order of Rs 50,000 crore per annum but this would go up as membership increases. The exchange is also proposed to be listed with the Chicago Board of Trade (CBoT).

Initially, on-line trading is envisaged for soyabean, soyaoil and soyameal but will also include other edible oils in ayear's time, Sopa sources said.The members to the board will have an entry membership of Rs 1 lakh and a security deposit of Rs 1.50 lakh while banks, financial institutions and other bodies will have a fee of Rs 15 lakh, sources in Sopa said.

A daily clearance option will be available while the members would also have the facilities of taking deliveries at the end of the month, sources said.Starting with a WAN system, the network is to be enhanced to international level with four phases of linkages with international comexes including CBoT.The exchange will be liberal in terms of shifting of trading commodities for members but for settlement of grievances the members would have to file applications to the grievance redressal committee of the exchange to be set up in due course.

For this, Sopa officials said that a certified warehousing scheme will be established for safe storage of inventories and a special concept of warehousing receipts would be initiated under the Negotiable Instruments Act.Theinitiative is expected to lead to a better price mechanism in the edible oil market which is going through a rough phase particularly due to a glut in the international markets and unwarranted imports by the government, sources said.

The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs had officially cleared the way for futures trading in oilseeds, oils and cakes.

The Forward Markets Commission (FMC), has thereafter identified the futures trading exchanges in oilseeds and cakes in line with the recommendations of the Kabra Committee on futures trading.

The government had also issued a notification by removing the oils, oilseeds and cakes from the prohibitive list in section 17 and placed it in section 15 of the Forward Contracts Regulation Act (FCRA). The futures trading in the edible oils sector has been enhanced to stabilise wide price fluctuations and safeguard the interest of the farmers, stockists, exporters as well as other functionaries of the trade by allowing them a hedging facilities.