MUSCAT : An estimated 387,000 cheques went dishonored in 2022, largely due to insufficient funds in the drawer’s account, the Central Bank of Oman (CBO) has revealed.
However, the percentage of unpaid cheques to the total cheques presented in the system decreased from 10.6% in 2021 to 10.3% in 2022. In 2021, a total of 399,000 unpaid cheques were recorded. “With the rise of electronic payments, there is a notable decrease in the use of cheques for payments since 2018 from about 4.7 million to 3.8 million in 2022,” CBO said.
“A significant volume of the unpaid cheques are returned due to financial reasons. For instance, “Insufficient Funds” still led the list for reasons behind the unpaid cheques with a total volume of 309,728 and accounting for 80.1 percent of all unpaid cheques. This was followed by “Account Closed / Frozen / Transferred” totaling 39,457 (10.1 percent),” CBO added.
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An unpaid cheque or bouncing cheque is considered a serious offense in Oman and can lead to legal consequences including fines or imprisonment.
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