It’s about to get simpler to recover your lost shares!
It’s about to get simpler to recover your lost shares!
The government has finally established a deadline for the proposed integrated site that will simplify the process of obtaining unclaimed profits and shares. The platform, which is scheduled to go live in February 2024, would streamline the currently time-consuming, laborious procedure of recovering unclaimed dividends and shares from the Investor Education and Protection Fund (IEPF).
According to Indian law, if unclaimed dividends remain consequentially unclaimed for seven years, the firm must transfer the underlying shares and all unpaid dividends on them to the IEPF account within 30 days. Additionally, while your dividends and bonds are in an IEPF account, you will not be paid any interest.
Increasing balances and expanding compliance
The portal, according to reports, requires more than 20 documents to confirm the claimant’s application. As a result, instead of taking 60 days as intended, the average processing time has now exceeded 150 days. Additionally, because of the delay, the IEPF fund’s holdings are increasing year over year. If you want to return your dividends or shares, you may need the following paperwork:
primary surety bond
original certificate for shares, bonds, or deposits that have matured
Self-attested Aadhar replica
Returned cheque
Evidence of share entitlement, such as a share certificate or interest warrant application
few breaks, but challenges still exist
Currently, the documents go through numerous steps of manual verification to determine the validity of the claims. Processing times are lengthened significantly by significant human involvement, which also significantly reduces the approval rate. Less than 50% of the time, unclaimed dividends and shares are sent back to the legitimate claimants.
The government has worked to streamline the application and approval procedure, much like this planned platform. Some of these actions consist of:
removing the requirement to provide a stamped receipt in advance
allowing for self-attestation of documents rather than notarization, regardless of whether the shares are in physical or digital form (DEMAT)
Wills and succession certificates are not required for amounts up to Rs. 5,000,000.
The new platform will offer investors a dashboard of information as well as the ability to submit claim forms and receive online verification.
