Punjab National Bank and Warehousing Development & Regulatory Authority (WDRA) have entered into a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to promote financing against e-NWR (Electronic Negotiable Warehousing Receipt).

The partnership will help provide information to farmers and depositors of agriculture produce about the benefits of e-NWR. It will also carry out other outreach activities to improve agricultural pledge finance in India.

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 state-owned lender said.

Being the only negotiable warehousing instrument, the e-NWR system has several benefits. 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. This was followed by awareness session for officers of Zonal Offices, Circle Offices and different processing verticals of the bank.

The MoU was signed on 13 March in the presence of PNB managing director and CEO Atul Kumar Goel and WDRA chairperson  and retired IAS TK Manoj Kumar.

The other dignitaries present on the occasion were WDRA member Mukesh Kumar Jain, PNB chief general manager Sunil Kumar Chugh, WDRA deputy director Naveen Bairola, and PNB general managers  RK Vashishtha and Kanwal Jit Shorey.