The month of August had some anticipation in the air as the calendar month was filled with bank holidays throughout. The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) had come out with a list of mandated holidays for this month that introduced a total of 15 days of holiday to lenders across India.
The official RBI bank holiday list, however, only contained a total of 8 days leave. The other 7 were weekend leaves such as Sundays as well as second and fourth Saturdays. Together this all added up to 15 days. As the month has progressed, the total number of days has been whittled down to 10 days. The remaining holidays can be classified into state-wise holidays, religious holidays or festivals.
According to the categorisation and the RBI list of holidays, these days off can be classified into three formal brackets – ‘Holiday under Negotiable Instruments Act’, ‘Holiday under Negotiable Instruments Act and Real-Time Gross Settlement Holiday’ or ‘Banks’ Closing of Accounts’. This list in particular comes under the ‘Holiday under Negotiable Instruments Act’.
It should be noted that the list of holidays didn’t begin until August 13, which was Patriot’s Day and was only celebrated in Imphal. However, the overall list, which included weekend leaves, began on August 1 itself, seeing as it was a Sunday.
For this month, bank goers and lenders alike can expect a lot of back-to-back leaves in terms of the dates. While being so close together, keep in mind that these holidays are not uniform across all states and cities; they only apply to particular places on any given day. Having said that, this week will see a total of five bank holidays.
August 16, Monday, will start the list off for the week with Parsi New Year (Shahenshahi) which is celebrated in Belapur, Mumbai and Nagpur. The most significant leave for the week however is on August 19, which is Muharram (Ashoora). It will be celebrated in Agartala, Ahmedabad, Belapur, Bhopal, Hyderabad, Jaipur, Jammu, Kanpur, Kolkata, Lucknow, Mumbai, Nagpur, New Delhi, Patna, Raipur, Ranchi and Srinagar. This makes it one of two major holidays for banks in terms of the large majority of states and cities celebrating it.
The other significant holiday from the list is August 30, which is Janmashtami (Shravan Vad-8)/Krishna Jayanthi. It will be celebrated across Ahmedabad, Chandigarh, Chennai, Dehradun, Jaipur, Jammu, Kanpur, Lucknow, Patna, Raipur, Ranchi, Shillong, Shimla, Srinagar and Gangtok. This brings the tally up to a total of 15 cities across different states that will be seeing lenders take an off. With that in mind, plan your next business trip to the bank around these holidays as they are packed relatively dense from this point onward.
Here is the full list of holidays for the month of August 2021, as per RBI mandate: (Counting from August 16 onwards)
1) August 16, 2021 – Parse New Year (Shahenshahi) / (Belapur, Mumbai and Nagpur)
2) August 19, 2021 – Muharram (Ashoora) / (Agartala, Ahmedabad, Belapur, Bhopal, Hyderabad, Jaipur, Jammu, Kanpur, Kolkata, Lucknow, Mumbai, Nagpur, New Delhi, Patna, Raipur, Ranchi and Srinagar)
3) August 20, 2021 – Muharram/First Onam (Bengaluru, Chennai, Kochi and Thiruvananthapuram)
4) August 21, 2021 – Thiruvonam (Thiruvananthapuram and Kochi)
5) August 22, 2021 – Sunday
6) August 23, 2021 – Sree Narayana Guru Jayanthi (Thiruvananthapuram and Kochi)
7) August 28, 2021 – Fourth Saturday
8) August 29, 2021 – Sunday
9) August 30, 2021 – Janmashtami (Shravan Vad-8)/Krishna Jayanthi (Ahmedabad, Chandigarh, Chennai, Dehradun, Jaipur, Jammu, Kanpur, Lucknow, Patna, Raipur, Ranchi, Shillong, Shimla, Srinagar and Gangtok)
10) August 31, 2021 – Sri Krishna Ashtami (Hyderabad)
