Hardik Tokas
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) stated on Friday that, from August 1, 2021, the National Automated Clearing House (NACH) will be operational on all days of the week.
The NPCI operates the NACH bulk payment mechanism. It enables one-to-many credit transfers such as dividend, interest, salary, pension, and insurance premium payments, as well as the collection of payments for electricity, gas, telephone, and water, as well as monthly installments on loans, mutual fund investments, and insurance premiums.
“NACH has emerged as a popular and prominent mode of direct benefit transfer (DBT) to a large number of beneficiaries. This has helped the transfer of government subsidies during the present COVID-19 in a timely and transparent manner. To further enhance customer convenience, and to leverage the 24×7 availability of RTGS, NACH which is currently available on bank working days, is proposed to be made available on all days of the week effective from August 1, 2021,” said RBI.
To avoid a financial penalty for a low level, consumers will now be required to keep a sufficient amount in their accounts on the day of debit, even if it is a holiday or Sunday, under the new regulation. So far, even if you could not maintain an appropriate balance on such days and credited your account on the next day, there was no financial penalty payable by you.
NACH is presently only available on days when banks are open. “In the interest of customer convenience, and to take advantage of the availability of RTGS on all days of the year, it is proposed to make available NACH on all days of the week throughout the year, effective August 1, 2021,” the statement added. As part of the government’s digitization push, the RBI previously made electronic fund transfers such as NEFT (National Electronic Funds Transfer) and RTGS (Real Time Gross Settlement) available 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
RBI Governor Das, during his MPC meet announcements on Friday, said that the repo rate will be kept unchanged at 4 percent.
