The clearing house of International Commodity Exchange's (ICE) international division, the First Commodity Clearing Corporation of India (FCCCI) got the clearance from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) for dollar-denominated transactions. This was communicated to IPSTA, promoter of ICE, this week.

He added that earlier the Centre had clarified that non-member clients need not register with the International Commodities Exchange (ICE) for pepper trading in dollar contracts. They could trade through member clients.

Amendments made in the by-laws of the ICE were approved by FMC.Mr Shamji told The Financial Express that a task force had been set up and was working out the modalities. The association would not rush with things and would launch the trade only next month. Several leading traders from Sri Lanka, Singapore, Indonesia and Malaysia would be joining ICE very soon.

More would join once dollar trade started, he felt. The task force was looking into the various demands of the domestic and foreign traders. One of the main demands of foriegn players was the present trade limit of 2.5 tonne be raised to 15 tonne. This is mainly with the intention that a deal of 15 tonne would help them ship the commodity in a container at one-go.

All those trading in dollar contracts would have to open a dollar account. Each member would have to deposit Rs 6 lakh with the exchange for 200 tonne. A certain amount of this will have to be kept aside in the dollar account, as daily payment in the new system would be made in dollars. There has been a reversal to the price rise witnessed during the last two weeks. Except for the January contract which witnessed a rise of Rs 300 over the week, the prices of all other contracts have dipped. The December position came down.

IPSTA sources attribute this to a temporary phenomenon.Exporters who had obligations had to cover at higher levels. There was a feeling among traders all over Vietnam did not have much stock to pump into the market. The squeeze was felt by traders. Spot prices too fell over the week. Smuggling of the commodity from Kerala to Tamil Nadu continued, according to sources. Pepper from Wayanad and Idukki districts flowed to Tamil Nadu mainly by rail and did not reach the market here, as part of the efforts to evade tax imposed in the state.