The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has instructed all agency banks—those handling government transactions— to remain open regular services on March 31, despite the day being a bank holiday across the country except for Aizawl and Shimla. Banks are asked to stay open for regular services on March 31 so that authorities can avoid financial discrepancies and ensure all reports of FY25 are reflected within the same period. Per the central bank’s bank holiday calendar, March 31 (Monday) was listed as a holiday for public sector and private sector banks in almost all states except Himachal Pradesh and Mizoram for Ramzan-Id (Id-Ul-Fitr).
In a notice released by the RBI earlier this week, the central bank said, “The Government of India has made a request to keep all branches of the banks dealing with Government receipts and payments open for transactions on March 31, 2025 (Monday-Public Holiday) so as to account for all the Government transactions relating to receipts and payments in the Financial Year 2024-25 itself. Accordingly, Agency Banks are advised to keep all their branches dealing with government business open on March 31, 2025 (Monday).” It further said that banks shall give due publicity about the availability of above banking services on this day.
March 31 marks the close of the government’s financial year, which means all transactions related to government revenue, payments, and settlements must be completed before the new fiscal year begins. The logs of the receipts and transactions are used for government records and tax purposes later in the year. The financial year spans from April 1 to March 31 each year.
Banking services available on March 31
Here are the services that will be available on March 31:
– Government tax payments (Income Tax, GST, Customs, Excise duties)
– Pension payments and government subsidies
– Disbursement of government salaries and allowances
– Public transactions related to government schemes and subsidies
Bank holiday on April 1
According to the RBI’s bank holiday calendar released on the website of the central bank, on April 1 (Tuesday), Banks will remain closed in most states and Union Territories, except for Meghalaya, Chhattisgarh, Mizoram, West Bengal, Himachal Pradesh, and Meghalaya, for annual account closing.
Now, here is a look at the dates of the March 2025 bank holidays across regions.
March 7 (Friday): Chapchar Kut – Banks will remain shut in Aizawl.
March 13 (Thursday): Holika Dahan – Banks will stay closed in Dehradun, Kanpur, Lucknow and Ranchi.
March 14 (Friday): Holi (Second Day) – Dhuleti/Dhulandi/Dol Jatra – Banks will stay shut in Ahmedabad, Aizawl, Belapur, Bhopal, Chandigarh, Dehradun, Gangtok, Guwahati, Hyderabad – Andhra Pradesh, Hyderabad – Telangana, Itanagar, Jaipur, Jammu , Kanpur, Kolkata, Lucknow, Mumbai, Nagpur, New Delhi, Panaji, Patna, Raipur, Ranchi , Shillong, Shimla and Srinagar.
March 15 (Saturday): Holi/Yaosang 2nd Day – Banks will be closed in Agartala, Bhubaneswar, Imphal and Patna.
March 22 (Saturday): Bihar Diwas – Banks will remain shut in Patna.
March 27 (Thursday): Shab-I-Qadr – Banks will remain non-operational in Jammu and Srinagar.
March 28 (Friday): Jumat-ul-Vida – Banks will be closed in Jammu and Srinagar.
March 31 (Monday): Ramzan-Id (Id-Ul-Fitr) (Shawal-1)/Khutub-E-Ramzan – Banks were originally supposed to be shut across the country except for Aizawl and Shimla. But with the new notification from the RBI, all agency banks will remain open for regular services.