If you are an investor and still don’t know what IEPF is, you definitely need to learn everything about it right away. Set up by the Ministry of Corporate Affairs(MCA), IEPF’s sole purpose is to promote awareness among investors. Now let’s discuss in detail what is this IEPF and other FAQs.
What is IEPF?
Ministry of Corporate Affairs on 7th Sept., 2016 established IEPF aka Investor Education and Protection Fund, under the Companies Act, 2013, integrated under Section 205C. The main motive behind IEPF is to aid investors with claiming dividends, matured deposits/debentures and more which we will learn in this article.
Objective of the IEPF:
Promoting Investor education and awareness to introduce them with best investment practices, thereby ensuring all the market norms are followed without any violation of terms and policies. IEPF also provides shelter to all your unclaimed funds which can be easily claimed.
When do funds go into the IEPF account?
A fund goes into the IEPF account only when its owner hasn’t claimed it for seven consecutive years. However, the fund can be claimed via the IEPF 5 form which requires a little work including documentation.
What funds go to IEPF?
Not all funds are IEPF’s responsibility and only the below mentioned funds end up in the IEPF Account after remaining unclaimed for 7 years:
- Dividend amounts of companies lying in the Unpaid Dividend Account
- Application money( due for refund)
- Deposit money
- Debentures
- I Accumulated Interest on the above three sources
- Grants/ Donations received from Central Government, State Government, corporate houses and other institutions
How do I claim an Iepf refund?
In order to claim IEPF refund, you’ll need to fill in the IEPF 5 Form but before that, you’ll need to get your paperwork and documentation in order.
What documents are required to claim IEPF?
Alongside filling IEPF Form 5, claiming dividends and shares from the IEPF requires paperwork and documentation. Here’s what documents you’ll need before to claim your refund:
- Hard copy of completely filled and already uploaded claim form, including claimant signature(signed by all holders in case there are joint holders)
- Self-attested copy of acknowledgment which has SRN No.
- Indemnity Bond duly signed by the claimant
- Advance Stamped Receipt (Original)
- Original certificate of matured shares, dividends, etc.
- Claimant’s Aadhaar Card copy and/or copy of AADHAAR Card of all joint holders
- Claimant’s Copy of PAN Card.
- Self attested(Claimants) Client Master List
- Original Share Certificate (in case shares are in Physical Form)
- Proof of Entitlement (Certificate of share/interest warrant Application No. etc.)
- Original Cancelled Cheque Leaf.
- Copy of Passport, OCI and PIO card in case of foreigners and NRI.
- In case any Joint Holder is deceased, a copy of the Death certificate needs to be attached.
- Other optional documents, (if any)
What is the procedure to claim IEPF refund ?
Now once you have all the necessary documents, the process gets easy thereafter. All you need to do now is fill the IEPF 5 Form and submit the documents accordingly with a printout of the eform attached to the concerned Nodal Officer.
Visit http://www.iepf.gov.in and download IEPF-5 from to get started with the claiming process.
How to contact IEPF?
If you are someone looking for IEPF refund but don’t know how to get in touch with the Investor Education and Protection Fund Authority, here’s how you can get in touch with them:
Address: Ground Floor, Jeevan Vihar Building, 3, Sansad Marg, New Delhi – 110001.
Contact No.: 1800 114 667.
Website: iepf@mca.gov.in.
Conclusion:
I hope after reading out the above article you must be pretty clear with the functioning of the Ministry of Corporate Affairs and how it manages the IEPF(Investors Education and Protection Fund). With a sense of protecting investors interests, MCA is the core organisation that
Controls and regulates the working of the corporate segment in accordance with law.
Many times, investors aren’t well-versed with how the market works and what happens to their funds when they are unclaimed. And to look out for the same, IEPF was established. Any unclaimed shares, dividends, etc end up in the IEPF Account after 7 years(maturity period).
However, there is nothing to worry if your unclaimed funds are with the IEPF Authority as they are totally safe and it takes only little effort to get them back, following a simple procedure discussed above. Even though I have discussed FAQs asked regarding the IEPF but feel free to drop a comment if you still have some unanswered queries and I will try to update my article accordingly.
Author Bio: Vihaan Malhotra is a blogger, who has done his Masters in Finance.He loves to share the knowledge about IEPF Claim and tax related.
