NOT A LONG WEEKEND FOR BANKS: BANKS WILL REMAIN OPEN ON MARCH 30, 31, SAYS RBI; HERE ARE SERVICES THAT WILL BE AVAILABLE

Banks open on March 30, 31: The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has said that all branches of the banks dealing with Government receipts and payments will remain open for transactions on March 30 and March 31 just as any working week day. The offices will have normal working hours. 

In a notification dated March 20, 2024, RBI said, “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 the FY 2023-24 itself. Accordingly, Agency Banks are advised to keep all their branches dealing with government business open on March 31, 2024 (Sunday).”

Further, in another press note dated March 22, 2024, RBI stated, “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.” The transactions through National Electronic Funds Transfer (NEFT) and Real Time Gross Settlement (RTGS) system will continue upto 2400 hours as hitherto on March 31, 2024. 

The central bank said that this is being done in order to facilitate government receipts and payments. “In order to facilitate Government receipts and payments, necessary arrangements have also been made to conduct special clearing operations across the country. Special clearing will be conducted for Government cheques both on March 30 & 31, 2024. Agency Banks are hereby advised that all cheques related to Government accounts may be presented on such clearing. The timing for presentation and return clearing of instruments for these special clearing sessions for government cheques will be intimated in due course,” it said in a statement. 

For reporting of Central and State Government transactions to RBI, including uploading of GST/ TIN2.0/ ICEGATE/ e-receipts luggage files, the reporting window of March 31, 2024 will be kept open till 1200 hours noon on April 1, 2024.

Earlier, the Income-tax department had also announced that it has decided to cancel the long weekend for its employees. 

This financial year 2023-24 ends on March 31, 2024 which is a Sunday and March 30 is a Saturday and March 29 is Good Friday, which is a public holiday; this makes the last week of the month a long weekend. 

2024-03-28T14:03:03Z dg43tfdfdgfd