Ministry of Corporate Affairs and IEPFA further simplify IEPFA Claim Settlement Process towards Ease of Doing Business and Ease of Living

The Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA) has simplified claim settlement process through rationalization of various requirements under Investor Education and Protection Fund Authority (IEPFA) (Accounting, Audit, Transfer and Refund) Rules, 2016.

What is IEPF Claim?

• Any money as dividend which can’t be claimed by investor within 7 year and 37 days from the date of its declaration of dividend, shall be transferred by the company along with interest accrued, if there is any, & all shares in respect of which dividend has not been claimed for seven consecutive years or more thereon to Investor Education and Protection Fund (IEPF).
• IEPF Claim helps you recover unclaimed shares & dividends.

What simplification is made?

• For claimants
  • Requirement of Advance Receipt has been waived off, requirement of Succession Certificate/ Probate of Will/ Will has been relaxed up to Rs 5,00,000 (five lakh) both for Physical and DEMAT shares.
  • Notarization of documents has been replaced with self-attestation and requirements of Affidavits and Surety relatively have been eased.

• For companies
  • Requirement of attaching documents related to Unclaimed Suspense Account has been eased and companies have been given flexibility to accept transmission document viz. Succession Certificate, Will etc. as per their internal approved procedures.
  • Newspaper Advertisement requirement for loss of physical Share Certificate has been waived off up to an amount of Rs.5,00,000.

Objective

• The measure envisages a trust-based model for faster citizen centric services and turnaround time.
• It is expected that with these changes many more claimants shall come forward to claim their shares and amounts from Investor Education and Protection Fund Authority (IEPFA).

Manav Rajgaria, Audit Associate, SW India