HVC limit for cheques raised to Rs 10 lakh
TIMES NEWS NETWORK Lucknow: Aspiring to buy that ‘lakhtakia’ nano car by paying through a cheque? Do not expect your dealer to hand over the car keys the same day. For, the cheque of Rs 1 lakh you gave would not be cleared the same day, thanks to a RBI circular which has increased the limit of high value clearance (HVC) from Rs 1 lakh to Rs 10 lakh. The high value cheques are those which are cleared the same day by the banks — Punjab National Bank and Reserve Bank of India (Kanpur) in case of Uttar Pradesh. Cheques of amount lesser than that require at least two days. Until now, cheques of Rs 1 lakh and more were deemed eligible for ‘high value clearance’. The circular, dated April 23, came into effect in UP on Tuesday, even as scores of business people were left dismayed. But then, RBI has a broader plan: phasing out HVC by September this year and promote Real Time Gross Settlement (RTGS), the electronic mode of transfer of money. The circular shot off to all clearing banks stated that the RTGS is gaining popularity and therefore, needs to be promoted. Senior manager and in charge of high value clearance at PNB in Lucknow, P K Ganguly said that the number of HVC cheques have been rising and could not be scrutinised efficiently. ‘‘The circular removes that anomaly as well,’’ he said while talking to TOI. In Lucknow, Ganguly said, close to 2,000 HVC cheques of value to the tune of almost Rs 300 crore come up for clearance on a day-to-day basis. In UP, there are four clearing houses — Lucknow, Allahabad, Varanasi and Kanpur. While the first three are being looked after by PNB, Kanpur has an RBI branch taking care of high value cheques. The RBI plan, therefore, does away with these clearing houses by September to promote the RTGS system for transfer of money. The system would be useful for transfer of money to the tune of Rs 1 lakh and above. Below that the National Electronic Fund Transfer (NEFT) would be of use. But a user would be required to shell out Rs 25 while using the RTGS per transaction. Notably, there are a few banks, like the Union Bank of India, where use of RTGS is free of cost. The arrangement, however, is likely to be amended in the days to come and RTGS would be a paid affair, bank officials said. The circular categorically insists that the RTGS system available in 54,000 branches of various nationalised banks should be used, instead of issuing cheques. Interestingly, many of the bankers in the city were caught unawares by the new circular. A senior bank official in the State Bank of Bikaner and Jaipur (SBBJ) said that a notification should have been issued by RBI for the public to know. In others, the circular was sent through an e-mail to the senior official, while the news is yet to spread among the junior level staff. The move, said a senior bank official, might hit the businessmen in case they have issued HVC cheques (read of Rs 1 lakh but less than Rs 10 lakh) in advance and are waiting for them to be cleared the same day. ‘‘Now that would not happen. And these cheques would be treated like any other cheque taking at least 48 hours for its clearance,’’ the official said. --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups ""GLOBAL SPECULATORS"" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/globalspeculators?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
