The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) on Friday notified five days working week for the central bank and all banks. However, to facilitate the business community, selected branches of banks are allowed to conduct operations on Saturdays, it said.
The Federal Cabinet has decided to observe five days working week effective from October 15 under the energy conservation programme. According to the notification, the working hours for the central bank will be (from Monday to Thursday) 9:00am to 5.30pm (with lunch/prayer break from 1.30pm to 2.15pm) and on Friday the timing will be 9:00am to 6:00pm (with lunch/prayer break from 1:00pm to 2.30pm).
In order to ensure availability of basic banking facilities to the business community, the selected branches of banks in various business centres, commercial hubs and ports will remain open, while the head offices and other administrative offices of the banks will remain closed on Saturdays, it said.
The banks, however, allowed to decide their own number of branches that will remain opened on Saturdays, the SBP said. “Banks’ collection booths located at the Custom Houses and Ports shall remain open 24/7 as per the existing practice,” it added. The SBP has directed the banks to submit a complete list of branches, which would operate on Saturdays by October 18.
Nonetheless, to ensure that opening of selected number of branches should also support the underlying objective of the government to conserve energy, it has been decided that the branches to be opened on Saturdays would perform only those banking activities that will be absolutely necessary to facilitate the people,” according to the notification.
The list of activities permissible to be carried out on Saturdays is included: cash receipts and payments; collection of government revenues (taxes, custom duties etc); government payments (pensions, salaries, etc); online transactions and fund transfer (wherever possible); collection of utility bills; issuance of demand drafts, pay orders, traveler cheques etc, collection of cheques and other related instruments (the instruments received for clearing will be processed on the next working day); acceptance of documents and opening of inland and foreign letter of credit (not forward cover).
The central bank advised the banks to ensure deployment of minimal number of staff absolutely necessary to carry out the permissible functions with the clear instructions to ensure minimum possible use of electric appliances.
The banks will also observe other instructions of the government of Pakistan regarding energy conservation. For the information of the customers, the banks would prominently display in the concerned branch about its opening on Saturdays, the SBP added.