| In February, against all basic economic sense, Indian Finance Minister Palaniappan Chidambaram announced a new tax on commodities futures trading as part of his 2013-14 national budget. Should it pass, the tax would apply to all non-agricultural items, including copper and natural gas.
India's commodity futures market, just an idea in 2003, has become one of the world's leading exchanges in precious metals and energy, with a total turnover of 181 trillion rupees ($3.35 trillion) in the 2011-12 fiscal year. Mr. Chidambaram's transaction tax would cripple the hedging and price discovery functions of this market. It would also cause job losses across India's commodity trading network—all for little budgetary gain.......................................Full Article: Source
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