Clearance process for Cheques above Rs 50,000 undergoes a change
Keeping customer safety in mind with regards to the cheque payments and at the same time, reduce instances of fraud occurring on account of tampering of cheque leaves, the Reserve Bank of India, in its Statement on Development and Regulatory Policies, has introduced a mechanism of Positive Pay for all cheques of value Rs 50,000 and above.
आसान शब्दों में – आरबीआई गवर्नर शक्तिकांत दास ने गुरुवार को इस संबंध में घोषणा की कि चेक भुगतान की सुरक्षा बढ़ाने के लिए उच्च-मूल्य वाले चेक के लिए एक नई समाशोधन प्रक्रिया शुरू करने का निर्णय लिया गया है। शीर्ष बैंक जल्द ही 50,000 रुपये और उससे अधिक मूल्य के सभी चेक के लिए ‘positive pay’ मैकेनिज्म लेकर आएगा।
What is the Positive Pay Mechanism?
The CTS-2010 standard specifying minimum-security features on cheque leaves acts as a deterrent against cheque frauds, while standardisation of field placements on cheque forms enables straight-through-processing by use of optical / image character recognition technology.
How does Positive Pay mechanism function?
Although the operational guidelines will be issued separately by the central bank but under the Positive Pay system, an account holder shares the details of issued cheque to bank. The details include- Cheque Number, Cheque date, Payee name, Account number, Amount etc along with an image of the front and reverse side of the cheque, before handing it over to the beneficiary.
When the cheque is submitted by the beneficiary for encashment, the cheque details are compared with the details provided to the bank through Positive Pay. If the details match, the cheque is honoured.
This measure will cover approximately 20 percent and 80 percent of total cheques issued in the country by volume and value, respectively.
This move by the RBI has come as a relief measure to the customers, for, it will enhance safety in cheque payments.The instances of fraud occurring on account of tampering of cheque leaves have been at rampant and the Positive Pay system will put a full stop to those activities.
It is to be noted that the Cheque Truncation System (CTS) for clearing cheques is operational pan-India and presently covers 2 per cent and 15 per cent of total retail payments in terms of volume and value respectively; the average value of a cheque cleared in CTS presently is Rs 82,000.
In addition to this, RBI governor also announced that in order to promote innovation in the financial sector, an innovation hub will be created by the RBI in India.
A scheme of retail payments in offline mode using cards and mobile devices and a system of on online dispute resolution (ODR) mechanism for digital payments will also be introduced by the RBI.
