New Delhi: On Monday, all the scheduled commercial banks are closed April 1, 2019, due to the annual closing of accounts. According to the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) directive, the centralised payment services such as National Electronic Fund Transfer (NEFT) and (Real Time Gross Settlement) RTGS are not operational today, April 1. “As far as April 1, 2019, is concerned, since it has been declared as a holiday to enable the banks to close their yearly accounts, although RBI offices will work on that day,” RBI said in an official announcement on March 28, 2019.
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Other bank holidays in April include April 13, 2019 (Second Saturday), April 17, 2019 (Mahavir Jayanti), April 19, 2019 (Good Friday), April 27, 2019 (Fourth Saturday). There will be a bank holiday on April 14, 2019, on account of Ram Navmi which happens to be a Sunday. In order to facilitate the last-minute payment and clearance services, the Reserve Bank of India along with all other public and private banks facilitated a special window with extended hours on Saturday, March 30, 2019, and Sunday, March 31, 2019. Earlier on March 30 and 31, 2019, all the RBI offices and all the designated branches of agency banks conducted banking business with counters open up till 8 pm on March 30, 2019, and up to 6 pm on March 31, 2019.
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Here it is to be noted that the facility of electronic transfers was made available within the aforementioned extended duration on both days. Other than this, centralised payment systems such as the RTGS and NEFT were operational with the extended business hours on March 30 and March 31, 2019. The extra effort that was put by all the scheduled commercial banks on March 30 and March 31, 2019, was done in order to facilitate Government receipts and payments. The banks also made necessary arrangements to conduct special clearing operations across the country on both days.