Currency Chest Operations on March 31, 2026

India RBI Notifications

Published March 16th, 2026

Detected March 24th, 2026

Summary

The Reserve Bank of India has directed all Currency Chest (CC) holding banks to keep their currency chests open on March 31, 2026, a public holiday, to facilitate accounting for government transactions within the fiscal year. This measure ensures that necessary operations can be conducted to support branches dealing with government receipts and payments.

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What changed

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has issued a notification requiring all Currency Chest (CC) holding banks to operate their currency chests on March 31, 2026. This date is a public holiday but is being designated as a working day for CC operations to ensure that all government transactions for the fiscal year 2025-26 are accounted for within that fiscal year. This directive stems from a prior circular mandating that all bank branches handling government receipts and payments remain open on this date.

Banks with CCs must ensure their facilities are operational and adequately staffed to support the branches linked to them. This action is critical for accurate fiscal year-end accounting and requires proactive planning by the CC holding banks to manage resources and inform their respective branches of the operational requirements for March 31, 2026. Failure to comply could lead to discrepancies in fiscal year-end reporting.

What to do next

Ensure currency chests are open and operational on March 31, 2026.
Inform all linked branches of the requirement to keep CCs open.
Allocate necessary staff and resources for operations on March 31, 2026.

Source document (simplified)

Notifications

March 16, 2026

All Currency Chest (CC) holding banks

Madam / Dear Sir

Currency Chest operations on March 31, 2026

In terms of instructions contained in circular DoR.CO.SOG(Leg)No.401/09.08.024/2025-26 dated February 03, 2026, all branches of the banks dealing with Government receipts and payments are to be kept open for transactions on March 31, 2026 (Tuesday-Public Holiday), so as to account for the Government transactions in FY 2025-26 itself. Since such transactions might necessitate operations at CCs, the banks are advised to keep their CCs open on March 31, 2026, akin to a normal working day.