Proposal transfer of old shares for small investors in 30 days

The Investor Education and Protection Fund Authority (IEPFA) under the corporate affairs ministry will consider a proposal, in its next board meeting on October 27, to facilitate the transfer of old shares for small investors in just 30 days, people aware of the details said.

The new rules, once approved, will allow faster transfer of physical shares up to ₹5 lakh and dematerialised ones up to ₹15 lakh to investors, they told ET.

Shares, dividends and matured debentures that are not claimed for seven years by investors are transferred by companies to the IEPFA.

The latest proposal will cover most investors who are grappling with inordinate delay in share transfers, despite some improvement in recent years.



Currently, there is no special carve-out in rules for small investors. The IEPFA board is headed by corporate affairs secretary Deepti Gaur Mukerjee.

Faster transfers to small investors can be made through a relaxed documentation process (without compromising on the quality of the scrutiny), and through the use of an integrated portal, the people said.

The latest proposal is a part of the government's broader efforts to cut delays in the processing of such financial assets to investors. It already launched the much-awaited integrated portal on October 6. It will enable investors to submit claims, reduce duplicate processes through application programming interface, expedite the entire refund process and minimise the scope for malpractices by eliminating human dealings.

ET has also reported that the Appointments Committee of the Cabinet, headed by the prime minister, has approved the creation of a dedicated chief executive post for the IEPFA to ramp up focus on refunds.

Currently, Anita Shah Akella, joint secretary in the corporate affairs ministry, helms the IEPFA, in addition to her other functions. A panel set up by the authority has pitched for simplification of the documentation process for low-value claims up to ₹5 lakh in case of physical securities and ₹15 lakh for dematerialised securities, and up to ₹10,000 for dividends. The IEPFA had total unclaimed assets of ₹5,539 crore in 2022-23, having tripled from 2016-17.

In 2023-24, 10.58 million shares were refunded by the IEPFA to investors, against 7.65 million in the previous year.