The RBI had also directed banks to advise their customers so that they can plan their payment operations accordingly.
The real-time gross settlement (RTGS) facility stopped working for all bank customers after the close of business hours on April 17, 2021. The facility will remain unavailable till 2 pm on Sunday, April 18, 2021, according to a Reserve Bank of India (RBI) notification dated April 15.
The RBI has cited the technical upgrade of its RTGS facility as the reason behind this temporary shut down. “A technical upgrade of RTGS, targeted to enhance the resilience and to further improve the Disaster Recovery Time of the RTGS system, is scheduled after the close of business of April 17, 2021,” the central bank said in its official statement.
The RBI had also directed banks to advise their customers so that they can plan their payment operations accordingly.
In the meanwhile, bank customers can take advantage of the National Electronic Fund Transfer (NEFT) service to facilitate their funds during this period. Both RTGS and NEFT are digital payment modes offered by the bank to transfer money in a snap.
However, there are some differences between the two. RTGS transactions deal with only large amounts of money. One can send funds above Rs 2 lakh via RTGs. There is no such limit with the NEFT service.
In short, RTGS service is preferred for transferring large sums of money while NEFT is preferred when you have to transfer less than Rs 2 lakh. Also, keep in mind that users can transfer up to Rs 25 Lakh per day via NEFT transactions.
