FAQS - WDRA
FAQ
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
Question 1:
What is the composition of Warehousing Development and Regulatory Authority (WDRA)?
Answer:
The Warehousing Development and Regulatory Authority was established under the Warehousing (Development and Regulation) Act, 2007 and it consists of one Chairperson and two full time Members. The present composition of the Authority is as given below:-
| Name | Designation | Date of Charge assumption |
| Sh. T K Manoj Kumar, IAS (Retd.) | Chairman | 22.11.2021 |
| Shri Mukesh Kumar Jain | Member | 23.03.2022 |
| Shri Arun Kumar Shrivastava | Member | 14.12.2022 |
Question 2:
What is the Mission and Objectives of WDRA?
Answer:
The mission of WDRA is to establish a negotiable warehouse receipt system in the country. It will make warehouse receipts a prime tool of trade and facilitate finance against it, enable banks to improve the quality of their lending portfolio and enhance their interest in lending against goods deposited in warehouses. This will help foster scientific warehousing of goods, increase liquidity in rural areas, improve supply chains, enhance grading and quality of goods and there by ensure higher returns to depositors.
Question 3:
How the NWR are helpful to farmers?
Answer:
The negotiable warehouse receipts issued by the WDRA will help the farmers to seek loans from banks against the NWRs to avoid distress sales of agricultural produce during the peak marketing season and to avoid the post harvest storage loss.
Question 4:
Number of commodities notified under the Act?
Answer:
136 agricultural commodities including cereals, pulses, oil seeds, spices, rubber, tobacco, coffee etc for issuing negotiable warehouse receipts and also 24 horticultural commodities for cold storage and 9 non agricultural commodities have been notified.
Question 5:
How many godowns have been registered under The W(D&R) Act,2007?
Answer:
Question 6:
Whether the facilities for post harvest storage loan on NWRs is available?
Answer:
To discourage distress sale by farmers and to encourage them to store their produce against warehouse receipts the benefit of interest subvention was made available to small and marginal farmers having Kisan Credit Cards for a period of six months @ 7%.
Question 7:
What are the Rules and Regulations notified under the W(D&R) Act, 2007 so far?
Answer:
The following rules and regulations have been notified under the Warehousing (Development and Regulations) Act, 2007:-
| REGULATIONS |
Question 8:
How electronic Negotiable Warehouse Receipt is issued?
Answer:
The Authority has launched electronic Negotiable Warehouse Receipt from 26th September 2018 and thereby migrating to IT based eNWR ecosystem, by licensing two Repositories namely, M/s CCRL (sponsored by CDSL) and M/s NeRL (sponsored by NCDEX). All the registered warehouses are on boarded to Repository System for issuing eNWR against the deposits. The depositor can use eNWR to get loans against underlying commodities from banks and lien will be marked by the repository.
Question 9:
Who are the Members of Warehousing Advisory Committee of WDRA?
Answer:
| i | Chairman, Warehousing Development and Regulatory Authority | Chairman |
| ii | Members, Warehousing Development and Regulatory Authority | Member |
| iii | Additional Secretary & Financial Advisor, Department of Food & PD | Member |
| iv | Chairman, Forward Market Commission | Member |
| v | Joint Secretary (Storage), Department of Food & Public Distribution | Member |
| vi | Joint Secretary/Agricultural Marketing Advisor, Department of Agriculture and Cooperation | Member |
| vii | Joint Secretary, (Consumer Affairs), Department of Consumer Affairs | Member |
| viii | Managing Director, Central Warehousing Corporation | Member |
| ix | Director General, Bureau of Indian Standards | Member |
| x | Managing Director, Agriculture Insurance Company of India | Member |
| xi | Representative of State Bank of India | Member |
| xii | Representative of National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development Not below the rank of General Manager | Member |
| xiii | Representative of Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry | Member |
| xiv | Representative of Confederation of Indian Industry | Member |
| xv | Representative of Farmer’s Association | Member |
| xvi | Representative of Cooperatives | Member |
| xvii | Director, Warehousing Development and Regulatory Authority | Member/Secretary |
Question 10:
What are the functions of advisory committee?
Answer:
As per section 34 (1) of the Warehousing (Development and Regulation) Act, 2007, WDRA may constitute a Warehousing Advisory Committee for the following are:-
| (i) | To advise the WDRA on the matters of Regulation under Section 51. |
| (ii) | To make recommendations for the effective implementation of the provisions of this Act. |
| (iii) | To advise the Authority on such matters are may be referred by the Authority. |
Question 11:
Who is required to register with the WDRA?
Answer:
Section 3 sub section (1) and (2) of the Warehousing (Development and Regulation) Act, 2007 provides that no person shall commence or carry on the business of warehousing issuing negotiable warehouse receipts unless he has obtained a registration certificate after fulfilling the prescribed norms in respect of the concerned warehouse or warehouses granted by the Authority under this Act.
Question 12:
What are the requirements for the warehouses for registration with WDRA?
Answer:
The warehouse operators which fulfill the following criteria can apply for registration of their warehouse with WDRA:
| i | The warehouse is constructed as per BIS/CWC/FCI standards and is storage worthy. |
| ii | Has all the safety and security arrangements for the stock and premises. |
| iii | Has got requisite manpower with adequate experience in warehousing. |
| iv | Availability of requisite infrastructure in terms of weighing, grading and preservation. |
| v | The entity has its own Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) or adopts the model SOP of WDRA. |
| vi | Adequate insurance is taken for the stock against fire, flood, theft, burglary, misappropriation, riots, strikes or terrorism. |
| vii | Possesses Networth as specified by the Authority. |
| viii | Furnishes security deposit as specified by the Authority for securing the negotiable warehouse receipts issued by the warehouse |
| ix | Exhibits compliance to local laws for carrying out the business of warehousing. |
| x | Has a KYD process in place as prescribed by the Authority. |
Question 13:
What is the application fee for registration of a warehouse?
Answer:
Details of registration fee for different capacity of warehouses is as under:
| Unit of registration | Fee |
| Each warehouse with a capacity of 500 Ton | Rs. 5,000/- |
| Each warehouse with a capacity of more than 500 Ton but less than or equal to 1,000 Ton | Rs. 7,500/- |
| Each warehouse with a capacity of more than 1,000 Ton but less than or equal to 2,500 Ton | Rs. 10,000/- |
| Each warehouse with a capacity of more than 2,500 Ton but less than or equal to 5,000 Ton | Rs. 15,000/- |
| Each warehouse with a capacity of more than 5,000 Ton but less than or equal to 10,000 Ton | Rs. 20,000/- |
| Each warehouse with a capacity of more than 10,000 Ton but less than or equal to 25,000 Ton | Rs. 25,000/- |
| Each warehouse with a capacity of more than 25,000 Ton | Rs. 30,000/- |
Note:-Where the applicant or warehouseman is a Farmer Producer Organisation or a Primary Agricultural Cooperative Credit Society or a Self Help Group, the fees shall be rupees five hundred.
II. Application fee for registration and renewal of warehouse storing both agricultural and non-agricultural goods :
| Unit of registration | Fee |
| Each warehouse with a capacity of upto 10,000 Ton | Rs. 50,000/- |
| Each warehouse with a capacity of more than 10,000 Ton but less than or equal to 25,000 Ton | Rs. 75,000/- |
| Each warehouse with a capacity of more than 25,000 Ton | Rs. 1,00,000/- |
Question 14:
What is the networth requirement for registration of a warehouse?
Answer:
Networth requirement for different capacity of warehouses is as under:
| Net worth Requirement | |
| Storage capacity (in tons) | Net worth (Rupees in crores) |
| Upto 500 | 0.04 |
| 501 – 1,000 | 0.08 |
| 1,001 – 1,500 | 0.12 |
| 1,501 – 2,000 | 0.16 |
| 2,001 – 2,500 | 0.20 |
| 2,501 – 5,000 | 0.40 |
| 5,001 – 7,000 | 1.00 |
| 7,001 – 10,000 | 2.00 |
| 10,001 – 15,000 | 5.00 |
| 15,001 – 25,000 | 10.00 |
| 25,001 – 75,000 | 20 |
| 75,001 – 1,50,000 | 30 |
| 1,50,001 – 5,00,000 | 50 |
| 5,00,001 and above | 100 |
Note:-Where the applicant or warehouseman is a Farmer Producer Organisation or a Primary Agricultural Cooperative Credit Society or a Self Help Group, the net worth requirement specified in the Table shall not apply, but it shall not have deficit networth.
II. Minimum net worth requirements of applicant for registration of warehouse storing both agricultural and non- agricultural goods:
| Storage capacity (in tons) | Net worth (Rupees in crores) |
| Upto 25,000 | 10.00 |
| 25,001-75,000 | 20.00 |
| 75,001-1,50,000 | 30.00 |
| 1,50,001- 5,00,000 | 50.00 |
| 5,00,001 and above | 100.00 |
Question 15:
What are the financial concessions available to Cooperative Societies and FPOs for registration of warehouse?
Answer:
Following financial concessions are provided to Cooperative Societies and FPOs to encourage them for registering their warehouses:
| i | The registration fee is only Rs. 500/- as compared to Rs 20000 to 30000 for others |
| ii | Networth is required to be only positive irrespective of the capacity, while for others it is specified with respect to the capacity of Warehouse |
| iii | Security deposit is Rs. 50000/- per warehouse in the form of a BG or bank FD ( fixed irrespective of the value of NWRs issued by it), while for others it is minimum Rs 1 Lakh plus a percentage of value of NWRs issued. |
| iv | Training of Warehouse Managers/ Supervisors by the WDRA |
Question 16:
What are the relaxations provided to the small capacity warehouses operated by Primary Agricultural Cooperative Societies (PACS) for registration of their warehouses?
Answer:
Following relaxations have been provided for registration of small capacity warehouses operated by PACS:
| i | In case the warehouse is located on a raised well drained site not liable for flooding / inundations and is away for a place likely to be affected by seepage water a plinth height of at least 30 cm may be accepted, |
| ii | The minimum limit for capacity to be registered in case of PACS warehouses will be 100 MT. |
| iii | Availability of parking and manoeuvring space for vehicles shall not be insisted upon. |
| iv | The warehouse should have a stack plan drawn leaving reasonable space for alleyways |
| v | Other than the Secretary of the society one more staff of the PACS shall be engaged (on full or part time basis) for storage and preservation of the goods in the warehouse. |
| vi | Availability of security guards may be desirable but not insisted upon for registration of the warehouse. |
| vii | Availability of a pucca boundary wall / barbed wire fencing shall not be insisted upon. However, the warehouse should have adequate arrangement for locking of godown and safety/security of stocks. |
| viii | PACS warehouses up to 500 MT capacity shall have at least one fire extinguisher (of requisite type) and six fire buckets. |
Website:www.wdra.gov.in
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