Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Friday permitted availability of National Automated Clearing House (NACH) on all days of the week, in a bid to ensure seamless and uninterrupted transfer of government subsidies to beneficiaries.
Announcing the MPC decision, RBI governor Shaktikanta Das said that NACH will now be made available on all days of the week effective from August 1, 2021.
He said that apart from facilitating a host of bulk payment, NACH has also helped transfer government subsidies during the present COVID-19 in a timely and transparent manner.
In order to further enhance customer convenience, and to leverage the 24×7 availability of RTGS, NACH operation is being extended on all days, he said.
NACH also facilitates collection of payments pertaining to electricity, gas, telephone, water, periodic instalments towards loans, investments in mutual funds, insurance premium, etc. it has also emerged as a popular and prominent mode of direct benefit transfer (DBT) to large number of beneficiaries.
The relevant instructions and circulars for all these measures will be issued separately, an RBI statement said.
NACH, a bulk payment system operated by the NPCI, facilitates one-to-many credit transfers such as payment of dividend, interest, salary, pension, etc. This service is currently available on bank working days.