The RBI has advised all bank branches dealing with government receipts and payments to remain open on Sunday.
New Delhi: In a major update, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has issued orders to all banking institutions dealing with government transactions to remain fully operational on the upcoming weekend: Saturday, March 30, and Sunday, March 31. The move by the RBI to keep the banking institutions open aims to streamline government-related transactions for the fiscal year 2023–24.
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“The Government of India has made a request to keep all branches of the banks dealing with government receipts and payments open for transactions on March 31, 2024 (Sunday) so as to account for all the government transactions relating to receipts and payments in FY 2023–24 itself. Accordingly, agency banks are advised to keep all their branches dealing with government business open on March 31, 2024 (Sunday),” the RBI circular said.
“With a view to providing greater convenience to tax payers, it has been decided that RBI offices dealing with government business and all designated branches of agency banks conducting government banking business will keep their counters open as per normal working hours on March 30, 2024 and March 31, 2024; electronic transactions can be done till the stipulated time on both days,”, another RBI circular said.
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Timing For Special Cheque Clearing
All banks must participate in the special clearing operations on March 30 and March 31, 2024, the RBI circular dated March 29 said.
What Does RBI Say?
The banks that house currency chests have been instructed to operate with their commercial hours on March 31, 2024. Also, since some transactions might necessitate this, the banks are recommended to remain accessible during working days.
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Cheque Truncation System (CTS) Clearing Timings
“Normal clearing timings under the Cheque Truncation System (CTS) as applicable to any working “Saturday” shall be followed on March 30, 2024. Further, to facilitate accounting of all the Government transactions for the current financial year (2023-24) by March 31, 2024, it has been decided to conduct Special Clearing under CTS exclusively for Government Cheques on March 30 & 31, 2024,” another RBI circular said.
“All the member banks of CTS are also required to keep their inward clearing processing infrastructure open during the Special Clearing hours and maintain sufficient balance in their clearing settlement account to meet settlement obligations arising out of the Special Clearing,” the circular added.
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Which Transactions To Remain Open?
After the RBI circular, NEFT and RTGS transactions will be available for up to 24 hours on March 31, 2024. This means you can initiate transfers through these systems anytime during that day. Moreover, there will also be special clearing for government cheques on both March 30 and 31st. So if any customer has a government cheque to deposit, he or she can take it to your bank on either of those days and get it cleared.
