Leading public sector lender Punjab National Bank and Warehousing Development & Regulatory Authority (WDRA) have entered into a memorandum of understanding to promote financing against electronic negotiable warehousing receipt (e-NWR).
The partnership is aimed to provide information to farmers or depositors of agriculture produce about the benefits of e-NWR besides doing further outreach activities to improve agricultural pledge finance in India, according to a PNB statement.
The main objective of WDRA is to implement Negotiable Warehouse Receipt (NWR) system in the country that would help farmers to store their produce in scientific storage godowns near their farms and to seek loans from banks against their NWR.
The e-NWR financing is being envisaged to be a game changer in shaping the rural economy by preventing distress sale by farmers and helping them in realising better price for their produce.
The e-NWR system has several benefits, being the only negotiable warehousing instrument. The process is fully digitised and comes with benefits like online lien marking, non-issuance of e-NWR above the capacity of warehouse and issuance of e-NWR only when scientific storage norms as stipulated by WDRA are fulfilled.
During the event, a brief discussion on the importance of accreditation of warehouses with WDRA was also held which was followed by an awareness session for officers of zonal offices, circle offices and different processing verticals of the Bank.
The MoU was signed in the presence of Atul Kumar Goel, Managing Director and CEO of Punjab National Bank, and T K Manoj Kumar, IAS Retd, Chairperson, WDRA.
The other officials present on the occasion were Mukesh Kumar Jain, member, WDRA; Sunil Kumar Chugh, Chief General Manager, PNB; Naveen Bairola, Deputy Director, WDRA; RK Vashishtha and Kanwal Jit Shorey, General Managers, PNB.
The main functions of Warehousing Development & Regulatory Authority are to make provisions for the development and regulation of warehouses which inter alia includes negotiability of warehouse receipts, registration of warehouses, promotion of scientific warehousing of goods, improving fiduciary trust of depositors and banks, enhancing liquidity in rural areas and promoting efficient supply chain.
( With inputs from ANI )
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