RBI mandates banks to conduct special clearing operations on March 31

The RBI on Friday asked all banks to mandatorily participate in the special clearing operations on March 31 to facilitate accounting of all government transactions for 2024-25.

India follows the April 1-March 31 financial year.

The Income tax offices as well as CGST offices across the country will remain open on March 29 to March 31 despite the weekend and Eid-al-Fitr, which may fall on Monday.

Earlier, the RBI had said all government transactions done by agency banks for 2024-25 must be accounted for within the same financial year.

It had asked all agency banks to keep all branches dealing with government receipts and payments open for over-the-counter transactions related to government transactions up to the normal working hours on March 31, 2025.

In a circular on Friday, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) also said normal clearing timings under Cheque Truncation System (CTS) as applicable to any working "Monday" shall be followed on March 31, 2025.

"Further, to facilitate accounting of all the Government transactions for the current financial year (2024-25) by March 31, 2025, it has been decided to conduct special clearing under CTS exclusively for Government Cheques on March 31," it said.

Also, it is mandatory for all banks to participate in the special clearing operations on March 31, 2025, the circular said.

Under the special clearing operations under CTS, the presentation time will be 17:00 hours to 17:30 hours and return session 19:00 hours to 19:30 hours.

All the member banks of CTS have been asked 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.