Agri-cooperative major Nafed, the government’s largest procurement agency for oilseeds and pulses, will launch an e-auction portal for agricultural commodities on January 19, a senior official said.
Nafed may open Nafex.in to states
The federation will also consider allowing state-level federation of cooperatives and agencies to conduct their e-auction on the portal — Nafex.in — which has been developed in collaboration with consulting firm Deloitte, the official said.
Currently Nafed uses private platforms such as mjunction, NCDEX eMarkets (NeML) and E-Teach for selling about 5.3 million tonne (MT) of pulses and oilseeds purchased annually from farmers under the price support scheme (PSS) and the price stabilisation fund (PSF). Another government agency, National Cooperative Consumers’ Federation of India (NCCF), also uses these private platforms to carry out e-auction of commodities purchased under PSS and PSF.
Private platforms levy 0.3% transaction fee
These private agencies charge 0.03% of the total value of commodities traded on these platforms as fees from the buyers.