Established in 2016, the IEPF Authority was primarily formed with the objective to safeguard the interests of investors and promote transparency in the Indian financial market. One of its significant functions is to facilitate the refund of shares and dividends that remain unclaimed for extended periods.
Furthermore, if a company declares a dividend, it is legally obligated to disburse it to its shareholders within a specified period. However, if shareholders fail to claim their dividends, the unclaimed amount is transferred to the IEPF. Similarly, if a shareholder fails to claim their shares within the stipulated time, the company transfers the shares to the demat account of the IEPF Authority.
Claiming unclaimed dividends and shares can be a very stressful & arduous task for claimants who are not familiar with the exact steps, documentations & compliances. An important aspect of the claim process is to submit the claim form IEPF Form-5 filled accurately with proper details & supporting documents to the Nodal officer of the company.
To claim dividends and shares, one must fill in the IEPF Form 5, which is available on the Ministry of Corporate Affairs website. Filling this form and submitting it to the IEPF authority is mandatory for claiming unclaimed dividends and shares that have been transferred to the IEPF.
However there are several documentation & compliances like updation of KYC, bank & demat account details, process for duplicate share in case of loss, transmission in case of death of shareholders, name mismatch etc that need to be completed in the company or its registrar’s records before filing IEPF Form 5.
Here are the steps to claim dividends and shares through IEPF Form 5:
- Visit the MCA website, create your login credentials and open IEPF Form 5.
- Fill in the required details in the form, including your name, address, contact information, folio number, number of shares, amount of unclaimed dividends & choose the relevant options pertaining to your case like Rule 7 is applicable or not & fill in the details of your bank & demat account.
- Attach supporting documents, such as a copy of your PAN card, address proof, share certificates or letter of entitlement, documents for duplicate process, bank & demat account details, transmission documents if applicable & other supporting documents.
- Take a print out of the IEPF form 5 and system generated Indemnity Bond & SRN Acknowledgement & execute them along with proper notarizations & witnesses.
- Submit the form along with the supporting documents to the Nodal officer of the company.
- After the form and supporting documents are verified by the company or RTA, the company will file a verification report to the Government.
- IEPF will process the claim, once it is approved they will transfer the unclaimed shares to the demat account and the unpaid dividends to the claimant's bank account.
Here are some of the common mistakes made while filing IEPF Form 5:
- Name of the applicant not matching with the PAN database.
- Date of birth of the applicant not matching with the PAN database.
- PAN number not verified.
- Wrong Aadhaar card number filled in the form.
- Wrong passport and OCI /PIO card details in case of foreign citizens.
- Whether Rule 7 of IEPF Rules is applicable or not is wrongly selected. It is to be selected as “Yes” in case the original shareholder is deceased.
- Rule 7 is wrongly selected as “Yes” in case of deletion of name cases. In case of a joint holding, if one of the joint holders has passed away, it is only a case of “Name deletion” and does not get covered under IEPF (7).
- Details of the name of the original security holder (deceased shareholder) and their beneficiary wrongly mentioned
- Wrong folio number or numbers of folios filled in the form.
- Number of shares wrongly filled in the form.
- Wrong dividends details filled in the form, which has been transferred to IEPF.
- Wrong financial year filled in the form.
- Wrong bank account or demat account details filled in the form. Bank account should be the one which is linked to the demat account.
- Wrong attachments or absence of compulsory attachments.
Sanchit Garg, Co-founder and CEO, GLC Wealth Advisor LLP
