New Delhi [India], March 4 : Union Commerce; Food and Public Distribution Minister Piyush Goyal on Monday assured reducing the security deposit for farmers from the current 3 per cent to 1 per cent for using the warehouses under Warehousing Development and Regulatory Authority(WDRA).
Goyal also requested WDRA to consider zero security deposit, particularly for small farmers with low land holdings. "I hope Manoj Kumar ji (Chairman WDRA, FCI (Food Corporation of India), and Food department will ensure this," the minister said.
"If need be, you propose a credit guarantee fund, which we will approve it in the full Budget. My concern is that small farmers with 1-2 acres of land holding should be subjected to payment of security deposits," the Union minister suggested.
Earlier, WDRA waived the application fee for the registration of warehouses storing Agricultural Commodities for farmers till 25th October 2025.
"I want to say that application fee for the registration by farmers in all the godowns built in the cooperative sector, should be made free so that farmers can get benefits of storage facilities," Minister Goyal requested the WDRA authority on Monday, as he addressed the launch of the e-Kisan Upaj Nidhi (Digital Gateway) here in the national capital.
Currently, each warehouse charges a non-refundable fee between Rs 5,000 to Rs 30,000 for capacity between 500 to 25000 tonnes as an application fee for registration/renewal of warehouses storing only agriculture commodities. Where the applicant or the warehouse person is a farmer-producer organisation or a primary agriculture Cooperative credit society or a self-help group, the fee is Rs 500.
Goyal, in his speech today, also outlined how procurement of agricultural produce at MSP has risen 2.5 times over the past decade, and how his government is committed for the betterment of the farmers.
The Warehousing Development and Regulatory Authority (WDRA) was constituted on October 26, 2010, under the Warehousing (Development and Regulation) Act, of 2007.
The Act provides for the establishment of the WDRA to exercise the powers conferred on it and to perform the functions assigned to it under the Act, Rules and Regulations for the development and regulation of warehouses, negotiability of warehouse receipts and promote orderly growth of the warehousing business in the country.
The WDRA is a statutory authority under the Department of Food and Public Distribution, with its headquarters in New Delhi.
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