To attract more private players in storage and warehousing, the government is believed to have extended the duration of its seven-year guarantee scheme for warehouses to 10 years.
Sources said an empowered group of ministers (eGoM) which met on Monday has given its nod for extending the deadline for the guarantee scheme from seven years to 10 years. FE reported on July 26 that the government was planning to tweak the guarantee scheme to make it investor friendly.
Under the scheme, which ensures assured hiring of godowns build by private parties for a designated period by FCI, the government plans to make available around 130 lakh tonne of additional storage capacity acrosss the country in the next few years.
Till June 15, as per FCI data, it has storage capacity of 305.17 lakh tonne, of which 32.45 lakh tonnes were under covered area plinth (where grains are stored in plastic covered in an elevated ground) and 272.72 lakh tonnes of fully covered storage capacity.
However, with the government procuring almost 22.5 million tonnes of wheat till July 22 in the 2010-2011 crop marketing season that started in April, the storage scenario has become somewhat difficult. Meanwhile, the eGoM is also believed to have decided to allocate an additional 4.57 lakh tonne of foodgrain per month to APL families for the next six months. ?A minimum of 15 kg of grain will be given over the next six months, if they are getting less than that,? sources said. Presently, the quantum of foodgrains allocated to APL families varies between 10-35 kg.
