The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Tuesday said the government has directed banks handling government receipts and payments to remain open on 31 March 2026, to ensure that all government transactions are accounted for within the current financial year.
This year, 31 March will be observed as a public holiday in several regions, including as a regional holiday for Mahavir Jayanti in India. As per the RBI’s calendar of bank holidays, the day has been marked as a bank holiday in parts of the country.
However, in an official notice, the central bank has requested agency banks to keep all branches dealing with government business open for customer transactions on Tuesday, 31 March. The move is aimed at facilitating the timely booking of receipts and payments related to the financial year 2025–26, which ends on the same day.
What does the official notice say?
According to the notice, banks have also been asked to widely inform customers about the availability of banking services on that day, so that government departments, taxpayers and other stakeholders can carry out their transactions smoothly without disruption.
An agency bank is a lender authorised by the RBI to carry out government-related banking work on its behalf. This includes collecting taxes, making government payments, and processing other transactions for central and state governments.
At present, all the public sector banks and select private sector banks act as the RBI’s agents. Only designated branches of agency banks can conduct government banking business, according to information available on the RBI.
This means that lenders such as HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank, Bank of Baroda, IDFC FIRST Bank, IndusInd Bank, Bank of India, Punjab National Bank, State Bank of India, Bandhan Bank, Canara Bank, UCO Bank, and several others will remain open on 31 March 2026.
How many bank holidays in March?
In March, there are 10 RBI-declared bank holidays, excluding the one on Mahavir Jayanti. Bank holidays affect banking services that require a physical visit to a branch and can vary from region to region depending on the Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) bank holiday schedule.
Meanwhile, there is only one bank holiday next week, the week between 2 and 8 February, as per the RBI bank holiday calendar. The bank holiday is on 8 February because it falls on a weekend. There will be no extra bank holiday as there are no public celebrations or observations in any state.
