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The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has said that banks will conduct special clearing operations exclusively for government cheques on March 31 to facilitate accounting of all the government transactions for the current financial year.

In a notification to all scheduled banks along with small finance banks and the National Payments Corporation of India, the central bank said that it is mandatory for all banks to participate in the special clearing operations on March 31, 2021.

It noted that normal clearing timings as applicable to any working Wednesday shall be followed on March 31.

"Further, to facilitate accounting of all the government transactions for the current financial year (2020-21) by March 31, 2021, it has been decided to conduct Special Clearing exclusively for Government Cheques across the three CTS (Cheque Truncation System) grids on March 31, 2021," said the notification.

The RBI added that 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.