As you would be aware, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) had planned to implement the new Cheque Truncation System (CTS) starting 1st January, 2013. You might have read previous article on same explaining everything about CTS -2010.
This would have rendered your old cheque leaves unusable – you were required to surrender the old cheques and replace your old cheque books with new ones by then.
However, the implementation of CTS has been extended.
Deadline Extended Till
The RBI has extended the deadline for Cheque Truncation System (CTS) to 1st April, 2013.
This means that you can continue using your old cheques till 31st March, 2013. You would need to get new chequebooks by then so that you can smoothly write cheques beyond April 2013.
What Happens After March 2013?
RBI has said that it would let banks accept and clear non-CTS cheques even after 1st April 2013, but the clearing of these cheques would be less frequent than CTS 2010 cheques. Therefore, these cheques would take longer to clear.
Also, RBI is considering imposing a fee on non-CTS cheques.
Why Has the Deadline Been Extended?
RBI has realized that all the banks are not yet prepared for the switchover to the new system by 1st January.
The banks have not been able to notify all their customers of the change, and would be unable to replace the old non-CTS cheque books with the new look CTS-2010 standard cheques by the end of the year.
Replacing the post-dated home loan EMI cheques has also been a problem.
This is the second time that the deadline has been extended. It was earlier extended from 1st October 2012 to 1st January 2013.
