Bank account holders can continue to use their old format cheques for another three months as the Reserve Bank of India has extended the deadline for banks to issue new format cheques with uniform security features till March next year.
The RBI, in a notification today, said: “Taking into consideration representations, it has been decided to extend the time up to March 31, 2013 for banks to ensure withdrawal of non-CTS 2010 Standard cheques and replace them with CTS-2010 Standard cheques.”
While most of the banks have confirmed that they are issuing only multi-city or payable at par CTS-2010 standard cheques at present, representations have been received from various stakeholders requesting an extension beyond December 31, it said.
As per earlier direction to all banks, the RBI had fixed December 31 as the last date for phasing out non-CTS (Cheque Truncation System) 2010 Standard cheques.