More approachable, claimant-friendly: IEPFA reaches out to investors

During the financial year 2021-22, the IEPFA settled 26,044 claims and distributed 61,21,291 shares and dividends worth Rs 10,85,53,066 to the rightful claimants

The Investor Education and Protection Fund Authority (IEPFA) is coming up with a raft of measures, including holding an investors' appeals event, to make it more approachable and claimant-friendly, besides resolving some of its systemic issues, according to official sources.

The IEPFA would be conducting “Niveshak Sunwai” (investors' appeals)  on August 12 to have a first-hand understanding of problems of the claimants . The Finance Minister had also directed officials to listen to the claimants and resolve their issues.

A team of IEPFA officials led by the CEO would visit Mumbai on August 12 as part of the “Niveshak Sunwai”, followed by Ahmedabad, Bangalore,Chennai, Kolkata. There would be walkthrough sessions for the filings, coupled with interactions with the nodal officers of the company, IEPFA and claimants. Investors can register using a QR code.

“This is hoped to break the labyrinth and demystify IEPFA and make it more approachable and claimant-friendly,”  sources said.

If a shareholder does not claim dividends for a continuous period of seven years, the shares are transferred to the Invest Education and Protection Fund. The IEPFA provides for a process to claim it back.

Since the biggest complaint, sources said, was that no one picked the calls, IEPFA is launching a revamped Interactive Voice Response System and Call Centre on August 15.

IEPFA is also bringing in a new five-digit short code for testing. “All of this is expected to resolve queries of investors regarding the status of their claims. Niveshak Sewak Panchayat is held every Monday to assist the claimants and resolve grievances on the spot,” source said. 

IEPFA settled 26,044 claims and distributed 61,21,291 shares and dividends worth Rs 10,85,53,066 valuation to the rightful claimants during the Financial Year 2021-22.

As announced by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in her 2023 budget speech, a soft launch of an integrated IT portal to resolve the technical glitches has been done. The portal is expected to be compatible with several other systems which are involved in the process of claiming unpaid dividends. These include central depository service limited, national securities depository limited among others.

The expert panel on the Adani-Hindenburg issue had raised issues such as capacity constraints faced by IEPFA in clearing investor claims. The panel's report submitted in May 2023 had flagged non-interoperability of different technical platforms as one of the IEPFA challenges.

This leads to a lot of back and forth between different departments, filing of hard copies of documents, leading to delays and lengthier processes.

The IEPF process seeks to cut out the middleman with direct authentication to ensure the claims are going to the right person. Since many consider the process onerous, they try to engage professional help. There is, however, a special email id for senior citizens to reach out to IEPFA regarding their unclaimed dividends.

The IEPFA has been established under section 125 of the Companies Act 2013, with the objective of promoting investor education, awareness and protection. Investors can claim refund by filing an online application notification, which then undergoes a process of reverification.