Commodity brokers want lower registration and transaction fees The Securities and Exchange Board of India ( Sebi) has proposed treating brokers of commodity exchanges on a par with their counterparts in equity exchanges in terms of registration and transaction fees. At present, commodity brokers are not under direct regulation of the Forward Markets Commission. The FMC is merging with the Sebi. In a recent meeting with representatives of commodity brokers, the Sebi said they should be treated on a par with equity brokers and, therefore, they must pay the uniform registration fee of Rs.50,000 per member. There were 3,399 members of three active commodity exchanges in March. Some may be common to more than one exchange. The Sebi also said there should be uniformity in fees, 0.02 per cent of the transaction, or Rs.200 for every Rs.1 crore of transaction on the futures platform. The Sebi is in the process of framing guidelines for commodity brokers’ registration ahead of its merg