Sunday working: LIC, other insurance companies, banks, income tax offices to remain open on March 31; Here’s why

Insurance companies will keep their offices open on Sunday, March 31, in view of the advisory issued by the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (IRDAI).

To avoid any distress to policyholders at the end of the financial year 2023-24, the regulator advised insurance companies to keep their offices open on March 30 and March 31. Since March 31 falls on a Sunday this year which marks the end of the financial year, this decision was taken by the regulatory body.

In a communication, the IRDAI advisory stated, “In order to avoid any hardship to the policyholders, the insurers have been advised to keep their branches open as per normal working hours on March 30 and 31, 2024."

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The insurance body urged the insurers to take note of the advisory. The IRDAI made this special arrangement to keep the branches open over the weekend and appealed to the insurers to provide adequate publicity to this development.

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Here's what LIC said

Life Insurance Corporation (LIC) offices will remain open and function as per the normal working hours on March 30 and March 31. LIC said that it will keep the offices under the jurisdiction of its zones and divisions open for normal operations. 

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Will banks be open on Sunday, March 31

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) in a notification urged banks to remain open and keep their branches functional for government-related transactions during the normal working hours on March 31.

The central bank notice reads, “The government of India has made a request to keep all branches of the banks dealing with Government receipts and payments open for transactions on March 31, 2024 (Sunday) so as to account for all the government transactions relating to receipts and payments in the FY2023-24 itself."

The RBI advisory further stated, "Accordingly, agency banks are advised to keep all their branches dealing with government business open on March 31, 2024 (Sunday).”

Income-Tax offices open today?

The Income-Tax department earlier this month informed  that it will not be observing this long weekend at the end of March. The IT offices will remain operational on March 31 to allow individuals to fulfill tax obligations and facilitate the completion of pending tax-related tasks.

The Income-Tax department in notice dated March 18 stated, "To facilitate completion of pending departmental work, all the Income Tax Offices throughout India shall remain open on 29th, 30th and 31st March 2024."