Warehouse receipt financing: Hafeez wants final draft of proposed law be submitted in a month

Adviser to Prime Minister on Finance, Dr Abdul Hafeez Shaikh has directed that final draft of proposed law with regard to warehouse receipt financing to facilitate the farmers should be submitted in a month after consultation.
A meeting was chaired by the advisor on Wednesday to discuss the framework to facilitate the farmers through warehouse receipt financing (WHRF). The meeting emphasised to introduce a formal commodity management and warehouse receipt financing system in order to address the issue of post-harvest losses and enhance farmers' access to agriculture credit.
The adviser was briefed about the importance of storage infrastructure for agriculture commodities which could save billion of rupees and make agriculture sector more competitive.
The meeting discussed the key challenges facing the implementation of WHRF in Pakistan, including lack of regulatory framework for Collateral Management Companies (CMCs) and lack of capacity of banks and other stakeholders to facilitate farmers in provision of WHRF. The meeting discussed a draft law for CMCs.
The proposed law will create linkages among warehousing, collateralisation, issuance of electronic warehousing receipt (eWHR) and eWHR Financing.
The adviser appreciated the efforts made by Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) and State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) in establishing the warehouse receipt financing facility in Pakistan. He said that the WHRF would help reduce post-harvest losses in agriculture sector.
It was also decided to hold another meeting in the next month to review the progress about the subject.
The adviser directed the concerned quarters that the final draft of proposed law should be submitted in 4 to 5 weeks' time after consultation with all the relevant stakeholders.
The meeting was participated by chairman SECP, governor SBP, acting president ZTBL, secretary agriculture Punjab and chairman PAC along with Jahangir Khan Tareen.