Differential rates of interest can be paid onsingle depositof Rs.15 lakhs and above and not on the aggregate of individual deposits where such total exceeds Rs.15 lakhs.

All Scheduled Commercial Banks, Regional Rural Banks and Scheduled Primary Co-operative Banks are covered under the Scheme.

ECS Credit payments can be initiated by any institution (called ECS Credit User) which needs to make bulk or repetitive payments to a number of beneficiaries. The institutional User has to first register with an ECS Centre. The User has to also obtain the consent of beneficiaries (i.e., the recipients of salary, pension, dividend, interest etc.) and get their bank account particulars prior to participation in the ECS Credit scheme. ECS Credit payments can be put through by the ECS User only through his / her bank (known as the Sponsor bank). ECS Credits are afforded to the beneficiary account holders (known as destination account holders) through the beneficiary account holders’ bank (known as the destination bank). The beneficiary account holders are required to give mandates to the user institutions to enable them to afford credit to their bank accounts through the ECS Credit mechanism.

Banks have been advised to issue only CTS 2010 standard compliant cheques from September 30, 2012. Earlier, there were seprate clearing sessions for non-CTS cheques. However, they were discontinued with effect from December 31, 2018. As of now, non-CTS cheques cannot be presented in CTS. Bank have been advised to withdraw the non-CTS cheques from the customers. However, non-CTS cheques remain to be valid as a negotiable instrument.

Ans. A resident of India, who has gone out of India on a temporary visit may bring into India at the time of his return from any place outside India (other than Nepal and Bhutan), currency notes of Government of India and Reserve Bank of India notes up to an amount not exceeding Rs.25,000. A person may bring into India from Nepal or Bhutan, currency notes of Government of India and Reserve Bank of India notes, in denomination not exceeding Rs.100. Any person resident outside India, not being a citizen of Pakistan and Bangladesh and also not a traveller coming from and going to Pakistan and Bangladesh, and visiting India may bring into India currency notes of Government of India and Reserve Bank of India notes up to an amount not exceeding Rs.25,000 while entering only through an airport.

The applicant has to be a company registered under the Companies Act, 1956/ Companies Act 2013/ Registration of Companies (Sikkim) Act, 1961, having a minimum Net Owned Funds (NOF) of INR 25 lakh to apply for a single-branch FFMC licence and INR 50 lakh to apply for a multiple-branch FFMC licence.

Ans: Indian Financial System Code (IFSC) is an alpha-numeric code that uniquely identifies a bank-branch participating in the NEFT system. It is a 11-digit code with the first 4 alpha characters representing the bank, and the last 6 characters representing the branch. The 5th character is 0 (zero). IFSC is used by the NEFT system to identify the originating / destination banks / branches and also to route the messages appropriately to the concerned banks / branches.

Ans: No. Not required.

Ans: No, this is not mandatory. It would, however, be ideal if the beneficiary maintains an account with a bank branch in Nepal to which the credit could be afforded. In Nepal, the INRF Scheme is handled by Nepal SBI Ltd. (NSBL). If the beneficiary does not have a bank account with NSBL or resides in a locality / area in Nepal not serviced by a NSBL bank branch, an arrangement has been entered into by NSBL with a money transfer company in Nepal (called Prabhu Money Transfer) who would make arrangements for delivery of cash (in Nepalese Rupees) to the beneficiary.

Ans. The correspondent bank shall be responsible for the LEI of the non-resident counterpart. However, in this regard it may be guided by the instructions contained in paragraph 2 of the circular.