The National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) on December 29, 2023, issued a Master Circular regarding the Maximum period for a mandate and the Final collection date (end-date) of the mandate.
The following circulars have been referred:
• NPCI/2023-24/NACH/007, dated August 18, 2023
• NPCI/2023-24/NACH/008, dated August 18, 2023
• NPCI/NACH/OC No.010/2023-24, dated October 31, 2023
The master circular covers all the following aspects:
• Maximum period for which a mandate can be issued: A mandate can be issued for a maximum duration of 40 years from the date of issuance. Validation will be built into the central system to accept only the mandates that are for 40 years or below. This shall be effective from April 01, 2024.
• Final collection date (end-date) of mandate to be mandatory in XML: It has been decided to remove the option of "until cancelled" for all categories of mandates, it will be mandatory to provide the Final collection date (end-date) for all the categories of mandates. Referring to the above point, the end date cannot be more than 40 years from the date of the mandate.
• Penalty for High Percentage of ACH DR Return:
o Phase I (Effective from 1st February 2024)
Corporate shall take care of the high-age returns with immediate effect however additional charges of ₹1 will be levied on corporates with returns above 50% with effect from February 01, 2024, for 2 months in all providing 3 months from January for the ecosystem to improve.
o Phase II (Effective from April 01, 2024)
Rs. 5 per return transaction for corporates above 50% returns.
o Phase III (Effective from July 01, 2024)
Corporates with return transactions above 50% will be barred from registering new mandates.
Kindly refer to the circular for more details.
[Circular no. NPCI/NACH/OC No.012/2023-24]
