Around Rs 2,637.94 crore lying unclaimed with mutual funds: Amfi data

Around Rs 2,637.94 crore of unclaimed dividends and units are lying with mutual fund (MF) houses, the Association of Mutual Funds in India (Amfi) said on Thursday. Of the total, Rs 1,659.02 crore is in the form of unclaimed dividends and the rest , Rs 978.92 crore, are unclaimed redemptions. 

Amfi’s chief executive officer NS Venkatesh said that the association has been working clo­sely with the Securities and Exch­ange Board of India (Sebi) to ensure that the money reaches the rightful owner. "Sebi has advised Amfi to ensure that the investor or nominee or heir gets the money. We are working closely with Sebi in this matter. This number will come down substantially in the near future," he said. 

Venkatesh said that fund houses try to connect with these investors through the email-id and phone numbers associated with their PAN. Money is said to be unclaimed when the fund house is unable to make dividend and redemption-related payments to the investor through the online as well as offline channels.

As per Sebi regulation, this money is then parked in a shorter duration debt scheme like liquid or overnight.

Unclaimed savings and investments is an issue across banks and investment products. Last month, the government pegged the unclaimed deposits with public sector banks at Rs 35,000 crore.

“As per information available with the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), as at the end of February 2023, the total amount of unclaimed deposits transferred to RBI by Public Sector Banks (PSBs) in respect of deposits which have not been operated for 10 years or more, was ₹35,012 crore,” Minister of State in the Finance Ministry Bhagwat Karad said in a written response in the Parliament.