Banks will conduct special clearing ops on Mar 31 for closure of govt accounts

Banks will conduct special clearing operations for the annual closure of government accounts on March 31, to facilitate accounting of all government transactions for the current financial year (2021-22). The Reserve Bank said that the above direction of the Central bank is mandatory for all banks to participate in the proposed special clearing operations for smooth clearing operation and asked them to participate in it.

All government transactions done by agency banks for the financial year 2021-22 must be accounted for within the same financial year and accordingly, the following arrangements are put in place to report and account for Government transactions for March 31, 2022, RBI said.

All agency banks should keep their designated branches open for over-the-counter transactions related to government transactions up to the normal working hours on March 31, 2022. Normal clearing timings as applicable to any working “Thursday” shall be followed on March 31, 2022. Further to Normal Clearing, Special Clearing is arranged to facilitate accounting of all the Government transactions for the current financial year (2021-22) by March 31, 2022. The proposed Special clearing is exclusively for government cheques across the three cheque truncation system (CTS) grids viz. New Delhi, Chennai, and Mumbai, on March 31, 2022, it said.

The Special Clearing  arranged exclusively for Government Cheques across the three CTS grids on March 31, 2022, is as detailed below:

Presentation of clearing: Between 17:00 and 17:30 Hours

Return Clearing: 19:00 and 19:30 Hours

All the member banks under the respective CTS Grids are 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.

Transactions through National Electronic Funds Transfer (NEFT) and Real-Time Gross Settlement (RTGS) System will continue up to 2400 hours as hitherto on March 31, 2022. Regarding reporting of Central and State Government transactions to RBI, including uploading of GST / e-receipts luggage files, the reporting window of March 31, 2022, will be extended and kept open till 1200 hours on April 1, 2022, the RBI circular said.