Banks Open on March 31: Will They Continue to Open for Regular Business?

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has requested that all agency banks participating in government transactions be open on March 30 and 31, 2024, since the current financial year 2023–24 is also scheduled to finish on Sunday. Those who want to submit income tax returns or make other payments may visit the agency bank office on Sunday as well, given the central bank’s decision to keep banks open.

Twelve public sector banks, twenty private sector banks, and one foreign bank are included in the RBI announcement. In order to account for all government transactions pertaining to receipts and payments in the FY 2023–2024 alone, the Government of India has requested that all bank branches handling government receipts and payments remain open for business on March 31, 2024 (Sunday). As a result, Agency Banks are recommended to maintain all of their branches open on Sunday, March 31, 2024, for government business,” the letter said.

Although the agency banks are authorized to do government business, it is unclear whether people may visit these specific bank branches to do other banking operations, such as making deposits, investing in money, or even just updating their bank account information.

Will banks continue to operate normally on March 31, 2024?

1. All electronic transactions will be accessible till the designated time on both days, March 30 and 31, even though the RBI notice requests agency banks involved in government banking activities to keep their counters open during normal business hours on those days.

2. Up to midnight on March 31, 2024, transactions performed via the Real Time Gross Settlement (RTGS) and National Electronic Funds Transfer (NEFT) systems would proceed as usual.

The schedule for the presentation and return clearing of instruments for these special clearing sessions for government checks will be announced in due course, however the RBI has instructed agency banks to submit all checks pertaining to government accounts for clearing. In addition, agency commission is payable on the following transactions pertaining to a few government projects that the agency banks have undertaken:

1. Revenue collected and disbursed by the federal or state governments

2. Pension benefits for the federal and state governments

The 1975 Special Deposit Scheme (SDS)

4. The 1968 Public Provident Fund (PPF) Program

5. The 2004 Senior Citizen Savings Plan (SCSS)

6. The Sukanya Samriddhi Account and Kisan Vikas Patra (2014)

7. Any additional activity that the Reserve Bank has expressly designated as qualifying for an agency commission, such as transactions involving Relief Bonds, Savings Bonds, etc.