NewsWire18, Tuesday, Nov 3 . By Soumik Dey NEW DELHI - National Spot Exchange Ltd that set up India's first electronic spot market trade platform, will launch operations from Orissa this month with a maize contract, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer Anjani Sinha told NewsWire18. "From November, we are starting operations from Orissa with a maize contract. Our delivery centres will be initially set up in Nabarangpur district and a few months later in Mayurbhanj district," Sinha said. NSEL currently operates from Maharashtra, Gujarat, Karnataka, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh and Bihar. With the start of operations from Orissa, the exchange would be issuing warehouse receipts to farmers from 67 locations since the launch of its electronic platform in Oct 2008, Sinha said. . MAIZE TRADE The Orissa centre will cater to the needs of farmers from one of the most backward districts in the state that had produced over 60,000 tn maize during the last one year, Sinha said. "Farmers had substituted paddy with maize with amazing results and had been seeking a market for their produce. We saw an opportunity there and raised awareness about spot e-trading platform before initiating the project," he said. Nabarangpur emerged as one of the major maize producing centres in the country recently and NSEL's warehouse will be set up in the state government initiated Maize Park at the district headquarters. Farmers are currently selling maize between 800-840 rupees per 100 kg, he said. Taking into account prices quoted by exporters on NSEL's trade platform, Sinha said, "Once the farmers shift to our platform, our assessment is they will be able to fetch 7-8% higher price than what they are getting now." . GST GAINS The Goods and Services Tax, which the Centre hopes to roll out from Apr 1, would provide a big boost to NSEL's business, Sinha said. "It will give a big impetus to our trade, reason being we will have one GST number that can be used for the entire country, instead of availing separate registrations for every state where we have operations," he said. "A unified GST will go very well with our project," he said hoping the tax will be implemented from April. Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee last week said the government may miss the Apr 1 deadline for implementing GST by a few months. Currently, NSEL charges a transaction fee on the volume of trade on its platform in 19 commodities that include farm products and metals. So far the most favoured contracts traded on the exchange are cotton, maize, castor seeds and precious metals, Sinha said. "The single tax structure will see more buyers and sellers on our kind of a trade platform," he said. Currently, NSEL has a daily turnover of about 400-500 mln rupees, which is expected to go up to 700-800 mln rupees once the GST is implemented, he said. End . Edited by Vandana Hingorani . NewsWire18 Tel +91 (11) 2335-1230 Send comments to feedback@newswire18.com . Copyright NewsWire18 Pvt. Ltd. 2007. All rights reserved. Category : B/ITV C/AGR C/MAR C/GRA C/COR C/TOP E/AGR I/AGR R/ASI R/IN R/SHA S/EXL