NEW DELHI: With a series of bank holidays lined up from Thursday, you can’t do any bank transaction at your branch for four to five days, depending on your geographic location.
The holiday sequence begins on Thursday as the country will be celebrating the festival of colours — Holi, followed by Good Friday and the weekend.
Southern states will be affected at least for three days beginning with Good Friday. Since banks are closed on the second and fourth Saturdays of each month, that is the second off day. And, of course, you have Sunday.
Add to that the possibility of a nationwide bank strike on Monday to oppose IDBI Bank’s privatisation, which will mean four off days in a row.
The All India Bank Employees Association (AIBEA) and All India Bank Officers Association (AIBOA) — both having substantial footprint across all banks — have given the strike call. While Holi holiday applies to the North, it will be a working day in South India.
For their part, banks have claimed that customers won’t face any problems in accessing cash through ATMs, since they will be fully loaded and operational.
But if past experience is anything to go by, even fully loaded ATMs could run dry by the end of the first day, leaving customers badly short of cash by the time the bank holidays get over. The spate of holidays will delay cheque clearances and loan
delivery. Online fund transfers, which are routed through the Reserve Bank’s electronic platforms, will also not take place on those days.