To facilitate accounting of all government transactions for the current financial year (2021-22), the Reserve Bank of India has decided to conduct ‘special clearing’ exclusively for government cheques across the three cheque truncation system (CTS) grids on March 31, 2022.

Under the special clearing, the ‘presentation clearing’ and ‘return clearing’ will be held between 5 pm and 5.20 pm, and 7 pm and 7.30 pm, respectively.

The central bank emphasised that it is mandatory for all banks to participate in the proposed special clearing operations.

All the member banks under the respective CTS Grids are required to keep their inward clearing processing infrastructure open during the specified time and maintain sufficient balance in their clearing settlement account to meet settlement obligations arising out of the ‘special clearing’.

On March 24, RBI said all the government transactions done by agency banks for 2021-22 must be accounted for within the same financial year.

The central bank also asked all agency banks to keep their designated branches open for over the counter transactions related to government transactions up to the normal working hours on March 31, 2022.

Further, 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.