Finance availed through e-NWR issued by NeRL is expected to increase 33 per cent to ₹4,000 crore this fiscal from ₹3,000 crore last fiscal
National e-Repository expects the Government move to allocate ₹1,000 crore towards Credit Guarantee Scheme for e-NWR (electronic-Negotiable Warehouse Receipts) based Pledge Financing to be a game changer in adoption of warehouse receipts and post-hard credit finance in agriculture
NeRL, the largest e-NWR issuer with a market share of 88 per cent, expects more warehouses to register with Warehouse Development and Regulatory Authority and register with it for issuing e-NWRs.
The agriculture industry has about one lakh warehouses in the country and of this 40,000 are public warehouses. WDRA has managed to register 5,000 odd warehouses. Among them, about 2,500 are registered with a NeRL or with competing Countrywide Commodity Repository to issue e-NWRmarket.
This apart, the Government under the Digital India Mission has launched e-Kisan Upaj Nidhi (e-KUN) program that enables farmers to access low-interest loans through electronic Negotiable Warehouse Receipts (e-NWRs). The program not only empowers farmers, but also shields them from distress selling.
RBI has also enhanced the Priority Sector Lending limit for e-NWRs from ₹50 lakh to ₹75 lakh. However, NeRL has made a representation to RBI for further enhancing it to ₹2 crore for farmer producer organisations and ₹4 crore for traders, he said as last changes were done a couple of years back.
NeRL alone has facilitated loans worth ₹10,000 crore against e-NWR through banks and the NPA cases seen by banks are hardly few. In fact, he said RBI should consider shifting all pledge finance lending against warehouse receipts through e-NWR.
The finance availed through e-NWR issued by NeRL is expected to increase 33 per cent to ₹4,000 crore this fiscal from ₹3,000 crore last fiscal.
The government is making various initiatives and expects lending through e-NWR based pledge finance to touch ₹1 lakh crore in next 10 years, he said.
The company’s operations are largely in Gujarat, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana and will keep investing resources in other states in the coming year.
NCDEX recently reduced its ownership in NeRL to 51 per cent due to regulatory push, with other major shareholders being NABARD, ICICI and SBI.
NeRL earns 40 per cent of its revenue from the transactions done by Exchange depositors although volume-wise it accounts for only 1.5 lakh tonne while non-NCDEX clients account for 8.5 lakh tonne of volume handled in the first 9 months of FY25.
