New Delhi, Warehousing regulator WDRA will pursue with the RBI again for getting preferential treatment to Electronic Negotiable Warehouse Receipt (eNWR), according to a Parliamentary report tabled on Monday. eNWR is a digital warehousing receipt issued by registered warehouses regulated and governed by WDRA. eNWR is used as a three-in-one instrument for financing, trading, and settlement.
Warehousing Development and Regulatory Authority (WDRA) has approached RBI several times to make eNWR mandatory for pledge financing, or at least give preferential treatment to eNWR-based loans.
It is the result of persuasion of WDRA with RBI that despite declining the request for preferential treatment to eNWRs on the ground of a low number of registered warehouses, RBI has enhanced the Priority Sector Lending (PSL) limit for e-NWRs from Rs 50 Lakh to Rs 75 Lakh.
“It is submitted, that, as per the recommendation of the Committee, WDRA will take up the matter again with RBI for getting preferential treatment,” said the report on action taken by the government on recommendations made by a Parliamentary Standing Committee on Food and Public Distribution.
The government’s response follows recommendations from the committee that WDRA should keep on pursuing with RBI for making preferential treatment to eNWR once the number of registered warehouses increases.
The number of WDRA registered warehouses stands at 5,634 and the progressive figure of pledge finance stands at Rs 10,161 crore as of February 2024.
The WDRA also said it has reached out to all state warehousing corporations (SWCs) to register them with itself. It informed that some SWC warehouses could not be registered as they did not meet the WDRA’s norms.
