Transactions by cheques up marginally in April: RBI

Cheque transactions worth over Rs 8.66 lakh crore were carried out in the country during April, 2011, a growth of over 0.7% from the same month last year.

Banks had cleared cheques worth almost Rs 8.60 lakh crore in April 2010, as per the latest data from the Reserve Bank.

However, the total number of cheques cleared during April fell by over 6.6% as against the same month of last year.

A total of 1,097.5 lakh cheques were cleared by the banks during the month under review compared to 1,175.3 lakh in the corresponding month of 2010.

In April, the Mumbai region reported the highest number of cheque clearances. Banks cleared a total of 195.1 lakh cheques with a value of over Rs 1.49 lakh crore, it said.

This was followed by Delhi region which reported 129.3 lakh cheques being cleared with a total value of Rs 1.23 lakh crore. In third place was the Chennai region with 60.7 lakh cheque clearances worth over Rs 48,500 crore, it added.

The latest marginal rise in the value of transactions by cheques comes after banks reported a fall in numbers during the last fiscal.

The value of cheque transactions had declined by 2.6% to Rs 101.33 lakh crore in 2010-11. Only Delhi and Bangalore, among the major centres, had reported a rise in value of clearances during the last fiscal.

However, the total number of cheques cleared by banks across the country had grown marginally by 0.4% in 2010-11. Over 1.38 crore lakh cheques were cleared by banks across the country last fiscal as against 1.30 lakh in 2009-10.