Pune: Offline banking activities such as cheque clearing and manual real-time gross settlement (RTGS) services are likely to be impacted during the three-day nationwide bank strike next week, from Sept 28 to Sept 30.Combined with festival holidays this week and the upcoming weekend, physical banking is expected to be hit for a total five days. Nationalized banks have been told by the finance ministry to keep all branches open on Sunday (Sept 27) to reduce disruption. However, the long pause is expected to cause some inconvenience. A cheque deposited by a merchant at the bank, or at an ATM kiosk, will not be processed for five days. Large traders looking to deposit cash in banks will not be able to do so, industry observers said.“Business owners opting to pay via physical RTGS will have to adjust payment schedules by four-five days. Transactions where physical banking payments are absolutely essential will be impacted,” said HP Srivastava, president of Deccan Chamber of Commerce (Industries and Agriculture).Suryakant Pathak, working president of Akhil Bharatiya Grahak Panchayat, said the five-day break will also impact borrowers looking to make loan pre-payments through cash or cheque. Such borrowers may have to face additional interest as the transaction will not close, he said.“Bank employees plan a strike whenever there is an extended holiday. Earlier, it used to cause significant disruption as people were dependent on physical banking. Now, retail customers and small merchants can manage with online transactions,” Pathak added.Devidas Tuljapurkar, joint secretary of the All India Banking Employees Association (AIBEA), said although govt has said some banks will remain open on Sunday (Sep 27), it had not issued a notification to that effect by Thursday.Banking employee unions are demanding a five-day work week and implementation of performance-linked incentives for staffers.Those in Pune’s manufacturing sector said the strike is not expected to affect salaries. Industry payments are made between 3rd and 7th of each month, so banks will be operational by then. In the IT sector, HR representatives said staff payments are made on the last day of every month, but the payments are scheduled in advance.“No adjustments will be required for salary payments as banks will become operational by the time payment is due,” Srivastava from Deccan Chamber of Commerce said.SS Salkar, COO of Hinjawadi Industries Association, said the strike was “not a worry for us”.
