The Central Government created the Investor Education and Protection Fund (IEPF) to secure shareholders’ rights and inform people. Section 125 of the Companies Act of 2013 governs it (the “Act”). The investor education and protection fund authority collects and deposits undisclosed or unclaimed monies from a company’s investors. 

INVESTOR EDUCATION AND PROTECTION FUND AUTHORITY ADMINISTRATION AND REGULATION 

The investor education and protection fund authority is administered by the investor education and protection fund authority, which consists of a chairman, a chief executive officer, and up to 7 other officials appointed by the Central Government. The IEPF Authority oversees the IEPF resources and keeps accounting records and other relevant documentation as necessary after conferring with the Comptroller and Auditor-General of India. The sums gathered to the investor education and protection fund authority in line with the Act’s provisions are the revenues of the IEPF.

The investor education and protection fund authority should only use and distribute investor education and protection fund authority for the reasons laid forth in the Act. The CAG of India will analyze the IEPF’s records. Once a year, the investor education and protection fund authority will give the Central Government inspected finances and an independent audit.

The IEPF Board will also submit an annual report for every financial year, which would include a detailed explanation of its activities and will be sent to the Central Govt. The Central Government must present the investor education and protection fund authority financial statement, as well as the audit report of the CAG of India, to every House of Parliament.

Funds Deposited to the IEPF Fund

Underneath the Act, the relevant funds will be allocated to the IEPF:

• When House has granted the appropriate funds for them to be utilised for the objectives indicated in the Act, the sum granted by the Central Government as grants.
• The federal government, companies, state governments, and other organisations make donations to the IEPF for use in compliance with the Act’s stipulations.
• The sum is moved to the investor education and protection fund authority from a company’s unpaid dividend account after it has been unpaid/unclaimed for seven years from the transfer date. The IEPF will receive the unpaid dividend account amount as well as any accrued interest.
• Those stocks where a dividend has still not been issued or received for 7 years or more have to be transferred to the investor education and protection fund authority, along with a statement describing the facts.
• Per Section 205A(5) of the Companies Act, 1956, an amount was allocated to the Central Government’s general revenue fund that was unpaid or unpaid at the moment the Companies Act, 2013 was adopted.
• The money kept in the Investor Education and Protection Fund is exempt from taxation under Section 205C of the Companies Act, 1956. (IEPF).
• The interest or other income generated by the investor education and protection fund authority‘s investments.
• The company is owed a return of the application costs collected upon stock allocation.
• Deposits that had matured with companies other than banks went unreported and unacknowledged for 7 years after they were scheduled to be refunded.

How IEPF Amount is Utilized

The IEPF Authority should only use and utilize investor education and protection fund authority for the specified objectives, per the Act: 

• Refunds for mature debt securities, deposits, unclaimed profits, and the application money that is due for repayment and its interest.
• Investor education, training, and security are all encouraged.
• Per Sections 37 and 245 of the Statute, the National Company Law Tribunal has allowed compensation of lawyer expenses spent by debenture holders, shareholders, or investors in filing class-action lawsuits.
• The disintegrated cash is delivered to recognized and authorized candidates for debentures or shares, debenture holders, shareholders, or depositors who have suffered losses as a result of any person’s misconduct, according to court rulings of disgorgement. The disgorged amount is the money received through the sale or disgorgement of securities.
• Any additional goal that isn’t connected to the ones listed above.

What Are The Refund of Amounts Credited to IEPF

Any person or shareholder whose unpaid or unclaimed money has been shifted by the corporation from the unpaid dividend account to the IEPF will be reimbursed by the investor education and protection fund authority. According to Section 125(3)(a) of the Law and Regulation 7(1) of the Investor Education and Protection Fund Authority (Finance, Auditing, Moving, and Compensation) Regulations, 2016, they can seek a refund.

The company deposits the outstanding or unfilled funds of the shareholders in the unpaid dividend account to the IEPF for the following seven years. Shareholders, on the other hand, can submit Form IEPF-5 to the IEPF Authority to obtain a refund of their payments to the IEPF. They must submit the necessary documents, as well as Form IEPF-5, in order to get compensation.

Stock holders should fill out Form IEPF-5 on the IEPF website to obtain payment for unclaimed funds. They must fill out the form, upload it to the IEPF website, and email it to the company’s Nodal Officer (IEPF) at corporate headquarters together with the necessary paperwork.

The documents and the Form IEPF-5 will be verified by the relevant company. Depending on the firm’s verification report, the IEPF Board will digitally communicate the refund to claimants’ (shareholders’) Aadhaar-linked investment accounts.

The post How Investor Education and Protection Fund Authority is Regulated in India appeared first on MUDS.

In this post, we’ll look at how to register a business in Kolkata. Company registration is a procedure through which all businesses are registered on the MCA’s website (Ministry of Corporate Affairs). The Company Registration in Kolkata is a simple procedure, but it requires numerous procedures to complete.

A Private Limited Company offers its stockholders legal protection and limited liability. A privaely held limited firm must have at least positions two working directors. A person can be both a director and a shareholder in a Private Limited Company. After receiving a Certificate of Incorporation, a Private Limited Company (PLC) can begin operations. Within 15 days following its application, a PLC can be implemented.

As a result, we will concentrate on the advantages and procedures of forming a Private Limited Company registrationin Kolkata in this post.

Advantages of forming a private firm company registration in Kolkata

1. A private limited company might have anything from two to fifty directors.
2. It is a legal autonomous body.
3. Directors have limited liability and are not directly responsible for the company’s operations.
4. Directors are only partially liable to creditors.
5. In the event of a default, the bank or creditors will sell the company’s assets rather than personal property.
6. The directors are eligible for tax benefits.
7. Suing or being sued in the name of a registered corporation is possible.
8. Companies that are registered have a higher chance of borrowing money.

Company Registration in Kolkata: Private Company Incorporation Checklist

• Directors: For private company registration in Kolkata, a minimum of two directors is required, with one of them being a resident director.
• The investment must be made in accordance with the business type, and there is no minimum capital investment necessary for a firm.
• Inventive business name: The name of the firm must not be identical or confusingly similar to that of another company.
• Registered address: Every business should have one.

Steps for Incorporation of the Company

The following are the stages of forming a business using the RUN form:

1. After that, create a login account and log in.
2. Enter the name you want to use and cross-reference it with the MCA database.
3. If an established business wants to reverse its name, a CIN will be requested through the RUN e- form.
4. The applicant must specify the name that he or she wishes to keep on file in case the firm’s name is changed or a new company is formed.
5. Then he or she must submit the prospective company’s objects as well as any additional documents in support of the suggested name.

Limited Name Validity

• For a new corporation, an authorised name is valid for 20 days from the date of approval.
• 60 days after the date of authorization for changing the name of an established corporation.

Steps for Private Company Registration in Kolkata

Step 1: Obtain DSC

Because the process is online, a digital signature is required for the incorporation of a private limited company. Members and executives must have a legitimate Class II or Class III DSC.

Step 2: Fill out an application for a DIN number.

A directors must have a DIN and must apply for one on MCA if he does not already have one. A DIN number can be used to become a director in many businesses.

Step 3: Submit an application for name approval

At the time of establishment, the company’s name, as well as SPICe (INC-32) must be submitted for approval. If the name is rejected, it can be resubmitted.

Step 4: e-MoA (INC-33) and e-AoA are the fourth and final steps (INC-34)

Previously, MoA and AoA had to be filed physically, but now they must be filed online on the MCA website. These papers must be digitally signed by the subscribers.

Step 5: PAN and TAN applications

After all of the paperwork have been completed, the applicant should consider applying for a PAN and TAN.

Step 6: Certificate of Incorporation 

MCA & RoC will analyse all of the documentation and issue a Certificate of Incorporation if they are pleased. The Certificate of Incorporation is a legal document that grants the firm legal standing.

7th Step: Open bank Accounts

The firm must create a bank account for any transactions in its name after receiving the certificate of incorporation.

In order to register a company in Kolkata, you’ll need the following documents

Documents required for company registration  in Kolkata:

1. For DSC 
2. DIN (Director Identification Number)
3. Incorporation of a Business

In the case of DSC,

1. Along with the DSC application form, the following papers must be forwarded:
2. The claimant’s photograph (to be stamped across with a blue pen)
3. The director’s address proof (s)
4. Id Proof (Pan Card) of the applicant Passport Aadhar card Driving licence Voter Id card Email Id and contact number (for each director)

DIN

Fill out the e-form DIR -3, which is available on the MCA website. Alongside Form DIR -3, attach the supporting information:

1. Id proof photo of the applicant (attested)
2. Proof of address (attested)
3. Make the payment as directed. The only way to pay is on the internet.
4. There will be a preliminary DIN created.
5. A preliminary DIN becomes an authorised DIN after verification.

• For a Firm’s Registration
• The Firm’s Title
• The firm’s assets
• Investors’ list
• The director’s Id proof is the company’s purpose (s)

1. Aadhar card and passport
2. Id cards for voters and driver’s licence
3. Director’s proof of residence (s)
4. Bank statement Telephone bill
5. The cost of electricity
6. Mobile phone bill (not old than two months)
7. INC-9 Director(s) Consent (form DIR-2) (Affidavit)

• Proof of the registered office’s address

1. Bills of Gas, 
2. Phone, and
3. Electricity

If the office is included in the lease, the lease agreement and a letter of authorization from the owner are required.

Holders of DINs declare themselves

A Private Limited Company Registration in Kolkata is an online operation that should be completed with caution, and once completed, the directors are entitled to all of the privileges of a Private Limited Company.

The post Private Limited Company Registration in Kolkata Via Online Method appeared first on MUDS.

Sexual harassment law: The word “workplace” confers to the Sexual harassment at workplace of Women at Workplace (Regulation, Prevention, and Redressal) Posh Act of 2013, and specifically includes:

The post POSH Act: ALL ABOUT THE SEXUAL HARASSMNET LAW IN INDIA appeared first on MUDS.

The post Recover Shares of Kotak Mahindra from IEPF appeared first on MUDS.

“2,200% yield in ten years, and this 100-year-old brand still has moats”

Varun Berry, Managing Director, is a fervent believer. He sees two critical elements working in the company’s favour that are impossible to find in any of its competitors. This year, to commemorate the company’s 100th anniversary, 50 new goods are in the works.

If you had kept onto a few shares where companies had a competitive edge and profit growth on their side, you might have gained crores on a Rs 10,000 investment ” Every company has a lifespan. In addition to this lifespan, it is important to determine a company’s high profit-growth phase and longevity. Stock prices are mainly a reflection of the company’s fundamental value. So, if we want to see a multifold increase in stock prices, we must invest in companies that are seeing a multifold growth in earnings.”

What do these figures mean for the average investor? The main conclusion we can get from this data is that if someone had invested in stocks in the initial days of Britannia, they may have become extremely wealthy. This is when the importance of share recovery becomes clear. According to newly revealed statistics from Britannia, it has the largest amount of unclaimed shares or unclaimed dividends among Indian businesses.

What is the basis of this unclaimed dividend?

People typically invest their money in a range of firms to reduce the risk of losing money. This looks to be helpful to the public, yet individuals periodically forget about their small donations and do not realise the advantages. The bought shares have remained inactive for years, with no one to claim them. When elderly people buy stock, they may neglect to identify an heir to the shares before dying. Businesses may have unclaimed dividends or shares as a result of this.

IEPF unclaimed dividend: Any person whose unclaimed or underpaid money has been transferred by the firm to the IEPF authorities may collect their reimbursements.

In case of the death of shareholder, one can opt for the option of transfer of shares on death. When a shareholder dies, his right to his shares passes to whoever inherits them under his will or intestacy. The rights of the dead shareholder will be handled by his or her executors (if a will exists) or administrators of the estate if the shareholder died intestate. It is critical to provide share certificate information. The physical share can be transferred by the issue of duplicate shares certificate.

Status of Unclaimed Shares of Britannia

Between 1998 and 2001, the firm’s revenues rose at a compound annual rate of 16 per cent compared to the market, while operating profits reached 18 per cent. [citation needed] More recently, the company has grown at a pace of 27 per cent each year, compared to the industry’s growth rate of 20 per cent. Biscuits currently account for 90% of Britannia’s yearly sales of Rs 22 billion. Britannia is one of India’s 100 Most Trusted Brands, according to The Brand Trust Report. Britannia has a 38 per cent market share.

The details of unclaimed dividends of the shareholders can be checked in the following link:

https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/britannia-industries-ltd/infocompanydividends/companyid-13934.cms

The most profitable investment ever would be just owning a Britannia share from the 1980s. As a result, recovering Britannia shares is a profitable endeavour. When you consider the number of revenues that will be created in the form of unclaimed dividends, spending small money to get the lost shares is not a big deal. To recover all of the lost shares, obviously, legal help would be necessary. Especially if the elderly person dies without claiming the money and their family is seeking it. All of the descendants may begin to ask for a share of the wealth. This is where legal counsel may help, as they can encourage the elderly to resolve the claim problem among family members. A legal professional can also help you file your claims with the IEPF.

If you want to avail Dematerialisation or Demat in short is the process through which an investor’s physical share certificate gets converted to an electronic format which is maintained in an account with the Depository Participant. Through this, you can get a demat of shares certificate of Britannia. Those people who have Britannia physical shares can choose the process of transfer of physical shares, liquidate them.

Filing a claim with the IEPF

Unclaimed payments and gains were previously transferred to the government, which would use them for public purposes in accordance with government policy. However, the government ultimately opted to create an unclaimed dividend fund into which firms’ lost or unclaimed shares may be placed. Any heirs of the funds, or anybody remembering a long-forgotten investment, may file a report with the fund’s management authority to recover their lost money and shares. The Government of India established the IEPF, or Investor Education and Protection Fund, with this goal in mind.

Investor Education and Protection Fund Provisions

The regulations for the Investor Education and Protection Fund were published in 2017 by the Ministry of Corporate Affairs (IEPF). According to the rules, any money left in the company’s unpaid dividend account for seven years with no claimant during that period must be transferred to the IEPF. The money, along with the interest for the same time period, must be transferred to the fund.

A claimant may only claim the transferred money after filing an application with IEPF. As a result, the IEPF has evolved into a one-stop-shop for investors seeking to file a claim for lost shares. It streamlined the process of requesting a refund for lost shares and allowed investors to reclaim their long-lost investment.

In the case of lost shares, you should send the following documents to the company/registrars: affidavit, indemnity & surety bond, original copy of FIR of police complaint reporting a loss of share certificates, and voucher copy of advertisement released in the government gazette publication regarding loss of share certificates.

Let’s go through how to have lost shares or unclaimed dividends from Britannia shares transferred to the IEPF. The method outlined in the following section is a set of fundamental requirements for a common investor to request a share return from the IEPF.

The Method for Claiming a Refunds of Lost IEPF Shares

Any individual whose equity, unclaimed dividend, matured deposits, matured debentures, application money due for refund or interest thereon, sale proceeds of additional shares, redemption proceeds of preferred stock, or other property has been transmitted to the Fund may assert the shares or apply for restitution under the regulations of section 124 sub-section (6).

Step 1: Claim to Authority

• A claimant must submit an IEPF Form-5 to MCA detailing their particulars, firm, and shares to be claimed.
• Particulars of the Applicant Specifics of the Shares to be Claimed
• Company Specifics
• Specifics on the amount claimed
• Aadhaar or PIO Card No. (in the case of NRI/foreigners)/Passport/OCI
• Deposits and securities are broken down by year.
• Details of the Aadhar-linked bank account (in which refund of claim to be made).

Step 2: Claim to Company

After completing the online refund form, the claimant should submit it to the Nodal Officer of the relevant firm, together with attachments such as indemnification bonds, original receipts and certificates linked to matured deposits or debentures, and so on. These will assist the firm in verifying the claim.

The following documents are required:

• Original Physical Share Certificate/bond/Debenture Certificate

•  Indemnity Bond with claimant signature

If the claim is for more than Rs.10,000, a non-judicial Stamp Paper of the value specified by the Stamp Act must be utilised.

If the claim does not exceed Rs.10,000, it can be completed on plain paper. In the case of a share return, the amount specified by the Stamp Act must be stamped on a non-judicial Stamp Paper.

• Advance Stamped Receipt (original) with the claimant’s and two witnesses’ signatures
• A copy of the claimant’s Aadhaar card
• Print off a completed claim form (IEPF-5) with the claimant’s signature.
• Copy of acknowledgement
• Cheque Cancelled
• Passport, OCI, and PIO card copies (for foreigners and NRI)

Step 3: From Corporation to Authority

A business shall create a claim verification report and send it to the authority in the manner prescribed by the authority within 15 days of receiving the claim form and evidence. To carry out the claim verification procedure, the company must choose a nodal person.

The Nodal Officer is entirely responsible for the conduct of any officer designated as Deputy Nodal Officer: If a business fails to nominate a Nodal Officer, each of its directors is assumed to be a Nodal Officer and is responsible for any failure to comply with the requirements of these regulations.

Step 4: Claim Grant by Authority

The claim will be awarded to the claimant when the authorities have verified the papers and form supplied by the company.

Step 5: Verification report to the Authority

Within 30 days after receiving the claim form, the business must submit to the Authority a verification report in the manner required by the Authority, along with any documents provided by the claimant. Please keep in mind that sharing certificate information is quite important.

In addition to the e-verification report, the Company shall submit a scanned copy of both sides of the original physical share certificate or original bond, deposit, or debenture certificate/s that have been lawfully cancelled and certified:

If the claimant has claimed equities, the regulating body will order that a refund be sent into the claimant’s Demat account. If money is found, it will be sent to the claimant’s bank account. Typically, the authority settles disputes within 60 days after receiving the verification report from the firm.

Time: The Authorities shall consider any application for reimbursement of any claim under this regulation that has been duly validated by the relevant company before 60 days of receipt of the industry’s verification report.

Kindly Do Not Send an Incomplete Request

If the verifying authority finds that the application is incomplete or that another document is required to complete the verification, an email will be sent to the claimant explaining the flaws in the given form or data, as well as any further required papers. The claimant is then required to produce the refurbished papers or another set of documents within 15 days after getting the notification email from the authorities. If the papers are not submitted on time, the authority may reject the claim application due to their inadequacy.

All documentation needed by the verifying authority must be addressed to the verifying nodal officer of the firm. Ensure that the documents are provided to the officer within 15 days.

In conclusion, you understood the whole process of collecting unclaimed money or earnings from a company. Britannia shares have soared in value over the last several decades. As a result, if you lay claim to shares that have been lost or unclaimed for a long period, the current value of such shares will be substantially higher. This is analogous to discovering unforeseen treasure buried on your ancestors’ land.

Therefore, reclaiming this lost capital and recovering shares requires the filing of evidence as well as compliance with all of the requirements listed above. Hiring a law firm to handle all of the documentation and filing for you is a straightforward answer to this time-consuming operation. These firms may also guide you through the whole process, making the work of recovering shares easier. So, without further ado, if you have any concerns or questions concerning the recovery of shares/transfers, choose a reputable legal firm with specialists and seek aid in reclaiming your unclaimed investment.

The post Recover Shares of Britannia Industries from IEPF appeared first on MUDS.

“Every business has a lifecycle. In addition to this lifespan, determining a company’s high profit-growth period and longevity is critical. Stock prices are largely a reflection of the underlying worth of the company. So, if we want to witness a multifold increase in stock prices, it is apparent that we must invest in firms while they are experiencing a multifold increase in earnings.”

“In barely 4 decades, HERO MOTOCORP has grown from a little startup to one of the world’s biggest and most acclaimed corporations,” says the company.

According to industry experts, “a thousand rupees investment in HERO MOTOCORP shares in 1984 is worth lakhs in 2021.”

What do these numbers imply to the ordinary investor? The primary thing we can conclude from this data is that if someone had an invested stock from 1984, they may become quite wealthy. This is when the necessity of share recovery becomes apparent. According to HERO MOTOCORP’s newly disclosed data, it has the highest number of unclaimed shares or unclaimed dividends among Indian firms. 

What causes this unclaimed dividend to existing?

People usually invest their money in a variety of businesses in order to decrease the chance of losing money. This appears to be beneficial to the public, but occasionally throughout the process, individuals forget about their little contributions and do not reap the benefits. For years, the purchased shares have been dormant, with no one to claim them. When older individuals acquire stock, they may fail to name an heir to the shares before they die. This might result in unclaimed dividends or shares for businesses.

IEPF unclaimed dividend: Any person whose unclaimed or underpaid money has been transferred by the firm to the IEPF authorities may collect their reimbursements.

In case of death of the shareholder, one can opt for the option of transfer of shares on death. When a shareholder dies, his right to his shares passes to whoever inherits them under his will or intestacy. The rights of the dead shareholder will be handled by his or her executors (if a will exists) or administrators of the estate if the shareholder died intestate.

Status of Unclaimed Shares of HERO MOTOCORP

HERO MOTOCORP is one of the largest companies in India and according to a recent report released by MCA, it also has the highest amount in unclaimed dividends. Even till 2015, HERO MOTOCORP had almost 60 crores recorded as unclaimed dividends from investors. They have all the data of unclaimed dividends on its website. It has also urged most of its investors to claim their dividends and get the recovery of shares or refund of shares before they is forced to transfer the amounts to IEPF. The details of unclaimed dividends of the shareholders can be checked in the following link:

https://www.herofincorp.com/sites/default/files/Statement%20of%20Unclaimed%20&%20Unpaid%20dividend__Last%207%20years.pdf

Source: https://www.heromotocorp.com/en-in/dividend-details-pattern.html

Furthermore to elaborate on what will be the value of HERO MOTOCORP shares bought long ago in today’s scenario will be, let’s understand the following data,

• The market capitalization of HERO MOTOCORP has multiplied 5000- times from the year 1984 to 2021.
• Total assets increased from Rs. 48 crores to Rs. 6,425.00 Cr.

Simply holding a HERO MOTOCORP share from the 1980s would be the most lucrative investment ever. As a result, recovering HERO shares is a successful business. Spending a modest amount to get the lost shares is not a huge problem when you consider the number of earnings that will be generated in the form of unclaimed dividends. Obviously, legal assistance would be required to recover all of the lost shares. Especially in the case of an old person who died without claiming the amount and their family are demanding the money. All of the grandkids may begin to ask for a portion of the money. This is when legal assistance may come in, as they can aid to persuade the elderly to address the claim problem among family members. A legal professional can also assist you in submitting your claim with the IEPF.

If you want to avail Dematerialisation or Demat in short is the process through which an investor’s physical share certificate gets converted to an electronic format which is maintained in an account with the Depository Participant. Through this, you can get a demat of shares certificate of HERO MOTOCORP. Those people who have HERO MOTOCORP physical shares can choose the process of transfer of physical shares, liquidate them.

Making a claim through the IEPF

Previously, unclaimed profits were given to the government, which will use them for public purposes, in accordance with government policy. However, the government eventually decided to establish an unclaimed dividend fund into which businesses’ lost or unclaimed shares may be deposited. Any heirs to the funds, or anybody recalling a long-forgotten investment, might submit a report with the fund’s management authority to recover their lost money and shares. The IEPF, or Investor Education and Protection Fund, was created with this notion in mind by the Government of India.

Provisions of the Investor Education and Protection Fund

In 2017, the Ministry of Corporate Affairs released the regulations for the Investor Education and Protection Fund (IEPF). According to the rules, any money that has been in the company’s unpaid dividend account for seven years and has no claimant during that time must be transferred to the IEPF. The money must be sent to the fund together with the interest for the same time period. The transferred sum may only be claimed by a claimant after applying to IEPF. As a result, the IEPF became a one-stop-shop for investors looking to make a claim on lost shares. It simplified the procedure of seeking a refund for lost shares and gave investors the opportunity to recoup their long-lost investment.

In the scenario of lost shares, you should send the documents to the company/registrars for the issue of duplicate shares certificates accompanied by, affidavit, indemnity & surety bond and original copy of FIR of police complaint reporting a loss of share certificates and voucher copy of advertisement released in the government gazette publication regarding loss of share certificates.

Now, let’s go through how to collect lost shares or unclaimed dividends from HERO MOTO CORP shares transferred to the IEPF. The procedure described in the following section is a set of basic rules for a common investor to demand a refund of shares from the IEPF.

The Procedure for Obtaining a Refund of Lost Shares from the IEPF

Any person whose shares, unclaimed dividend, matured deposits, matured debentures, application money due for refund or interest thereon, sale proceeds of fractional shares, redemption proceeds of preference shares, or other property has been transferred to the Fund may claim the shares under the provisions of sub-section (6) of section 124 or apply for restitution.

Step 1: Claim to Authority

• A claimant must submit an IEPF Form-5 to MCA detailing their particulars, firm, and shares to be claimed.
• Particulars of the Applicant Specifics of the Shares to be Claimed
• Company Specifics
• Specifics on the amount claimed
• Aadhaar or PIO Card No. (in the case of NRI/foreigners)/Passport/OCI
• Deposits and securities are broken down by year.
• Details of the Aadhar-linked bank account (in which refund of claim to be made).

Step 2: Claim to Company

After completing the online refund form, the claimant should send it to the Nodal Officer of the concerned company along with attachments such as indemnity bond, original receipts and certificates related to matured deposits or debentures, and so on. These will aid in the company’s verification of the claim.

The following documents are required:

• Original Physical Share Certificate/bond/Debenture Certificate

•  Indemnity Bond with claimant signature

If the amount of the claim is Rs.10,000 or more, a non-judicial Stamp Paper of the value stipulated by the Stamp Act must be used.

If the amount claimed does not exceed Rs.10,000, it can be done on plain paper. In the case of a share return, on a non-judicial Stamp Paper of the amount stipulated by the Stamp Act.

• Advance Stamped Receipt (original) with the claimant’s and two witnesses’ signatures
• A copy of the claimant’s Aadhaar card
• Print off a completed claim form (IEPF-5) with the claimant’s signature.
• Copy of acknowledgment
• Cheque Cancelled
• Passport, OCI, and PIO card copies (for foreigners and NRI)

Step 3: From Corporation to Authority

Within 15 days after receiving the claim form and documentation, a firm must prepare a claim verification report and submit it to the authority in the format specified by the authority. The firm must select a nodal officer to carry out the claim verification procedure.

The Nodal Officer shall be solely liable for the actions of any officer appointed as Deputy Nodal Officer: If a company fails to appoint a Nodal Officer, each director of the company shall be deemed to be a Nodal Officer and shall be liable for any failure to comply with the requirements of these rules.

Step 4: Claim Grant by Authority

After verifying the papers and the form submitted by the firm, the authorities will award the claim to the claimant.

Verification report to the Authority

Within 30 days of receiving the claim form, the firm should provide a verification report to the Authority in the format prescribed by the Authority, along with any documentation presented by the claimant. Please note that share certificate information is of major concern. 

Along with the e-verification report, the Company should send a scanned copy of both sides of the original physical share certificate or original bond, deposit, or debenture certificate/s validly cancelled and certified:

If the claimant has claimed shares, the sanctioning authority will require a refund be sent to the claimant’s Demat account. If there is any money, it will be sent to the claimant’s bank account. Typically, the authority resolves disputes within 60 days after receiving the company’s verification report.

Time: The Authority will dispose of any application for reimbursement of any claim under this regulation that has been duly confirmed by the concerned company within 60 days of receipt of the verification report from the company.

Do Not Submit A Incomplete Application

If the verifying authority determines that the application is incomplete or that another document is necessary to complete the verification, they will send an email to the claimant indicating the deficiencies in the provided form or data, as well as any additional required papers. The claimant is then obliged to provide the refurbished papers or another set of documents within 15 days after receiving the authority’s notification email. If the documents are not presented on time, the authority may reject the claim application owing to the documents’ incompleteness. All papers requested by the verifying authority must be addressed to the company’s verifying nodal officer. Make certain that the documents are delivered to the officer within fifteen days.

As a result, we comprehended the entire procedure of obtaining unclaimed payment or profits from a firm. HERO MOTOCORP shares have skyrocketed in value during the previous few decades. As a result, if you lay claim to shares that have been lost or unclaimed for a long time, their current value will be significantly greater. This is like to discovering unanticipated wealth buried on your ancestors’ property.

However, claiming this lost money and recovering shares necessitates the submission of documentation and compliance with all of the above-mentioned conditions. The simple solution to this time-consuming procedure is to hire a legal company to handle all of the documentation and filing for you. These companies can also help you through the whole procedure, making your task of recovering shares easier. So, without further ado, if you have any inquiries or questions about the recovery of shares/transfers, locate a competent law company with specialists and seek assistance on the recovery of your unclaimed investment.

The post Recover Shares of HERO MOTOCORP from IEPF appeared first on MUDS.

Stocks of Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) have always been a reliable asset for any Investor. One of the largest PSUs of India, ONGC has been a major fixture in the growth story of India post-independence. The state-owned PSU has also been quite prolific in giving heavy dividends to its customers over the years.

In this writing piece, we will study how ONGC has grown over the years to become one of India’s most profitable PSU post-independence. We will also understand via a hypothetical investment scenario how recovery a small sum investment made in ONGC in the 80s would have fetched huge returns in today’s terms? After that, we will understand the recovery of old and dormant shares of ONGC from IEPF.

History of the Oil and Natural Gas Corporation

Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) is a State-Owned entity specialising in oil and natural gas refinery services. The general term used for such entities is Public Sector Unit. ONGC is not just one of India’s Largest PSUs but also the largest PSU after Indian Oil Corporation Limited. Oil and Natural Gas Corporation is a firm of global significance. The corporation specialises in the development, exploration, and production of petroleum and gas. The Company’s other segments include Exploration & Production of oil, and Refining. The Company’s geographical operations segment is divided into two categories: Onshore and Offshore. Onshore operations are conducted in the Indian territory. Offshore businesses are conducted in other countries. The Company’s business is spread in various areas including, oil field services, oil and gas transportation, production of value-added products, Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG), Petrochemicals, Power, and alternate sources of energy. The Company’s various subsidiaries include OVL (ONGC Videsh LTD.), MRPL (Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals LTD.), and ONGC Mangalore Petrochemicals LTD. The Company’s oil and gas reserves are situated in Russia, Vietnam, Columbia, Brazil, and Venezuela.

The company has been a profitable venture and leads the petrochemical business for Government of India from the time of its inception. Along with LIC, SBI, and IOCL, it has been one of the major money makers for the Government and headed many infrastructure projects. It has survived various economic slowdowns faced by the country and still managed to be one of the best PSUs. The company’s success has been largely due to its impeccable administration monitored by brilliant PSU managers. 

In the following section, with a hypothetical investment and related calculation we will demonstrate how a small amount invested in ONGC shares in 1990 would have grown to nearly by 2021. The following calculation will show why recovery of shares/dividends of ONGC is a profitable venture. 

Calculation related to ONGC Shares

• Suppose your grandfather had bought 800 shares of Oil and Natural Gas Corporation registered in April 1990.
• Now, the company has released bonus shares thrice, in the last three decades as given in the following table.

Bonus History

• The bonus released by the company in 2006 was in the ratio 1:2. This meant that for every two shares owned by the investor, the company gave one share. The bonus increased the no. of shares to 1200 (800 original + 400 bonus).
• In 2010-11, the company released bonus shares in the ratio 1:1. This took the net no. of shares to 2400 (1200 original + 1200 bonus) shares.
• In the same year, ONGC announced a stock split in the ratio of 1:2. This meant that every 1 share of value Rs.10 was split into 2 shares with value Rs. 5. A stock split is done by the company to reduce prices of shares but keeping the net value of stocks the same. This took the total no. of shares to 4800.

Split History

• Now, the company continued to grow and it announced bonus shares in the year 2016. The bonus was announced in the ratio 1:2 which took the original no. of shares to 7200 (4800 original + 2400 bonus).
• Now, in today’s time, the value of one share of ONGC is Rs. 117.60 in June 2021. Now, let us calculate the net value of shares as per today’s rate.

Rs. 117.60 x 7200 shares = Rs. 8, 46, 000 (Eight Lakhs Forty Six Thousand only).

• So, one can easily notice that a penny investment worth thousands would have become almost 8.5 lakhs rupees in 2021. This is a huge increase in net percentage. 

Source:

https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/oil-and-natural-gas-corporation-ltd/infocompanydividends/companyid-11599.cms

https://www.ongcindia.com/wps/wcm/connect/31cce834-fb8f-49c1-a2c4-38df2f712f7c/ONGC_AR_2019-20.pdf?MOD=AJPERES&CONVERT_TO=url&CACHEID=ROOTWORKSPACE-31cce834-fb8f-49c1-a2c4-38df2f712f7c-noD1QT5

With the above calculation, it is quite clear that shares of ONGC have grown tremendously in value over the past 2.5 decades. Remember, in the calculation done above we haven’t calculated the Dividends for the said period. If we add the amount of dividend, then the net return on investment will be even higher. The company has shown tremendous growth in all sections and has been India’s leading player in the domestic and international market when it comes to the petroleum sector. We will study more about the financial details of the company in the following sections.

In the upcoming sections, we have given some datasheets created for dividends released by the company in the past two and a half decades. We have also given information on the shares transferred by the company to IEPF. One can study the information given by ONGC in the table below to understand how much dividend has been given by the company. 

Dividends Shared by ONGC in Last Decades

Source: https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/oil-and-natural-gas-corporation-ltd/infocompanydividends/companyid-11599.cms 

https://www.ongcindia.com/wps/wcm/connect/31cce834-fb8f-49c1-a2c4-38df2f712f7c/ONGC_AR_2019-20.pdf?MOD=AJPERES&CONVERT_TO=url&CACHEID=ROOTWORKSPACE-31cce834-fb8f-49c1-a2c4-38df2f712f7c-noD1QT5

Data on Unclaimed Shares As Per Annual Report 2019-20

The following table shows the data released by the company in the financial year 2019-20 annual report. The data show dates of Dividend transfers made to the IEPF.

source: https://www.ongcindia.com/wps/wcm/connect/31cce834-fb8f-49c1-a2c4-38df2f712f7c/ONGC_AR_2019-20.pdf?MOD=AJPERES&CONVERT_TO=url&CACHEID=ROOTWORKSPACE-31cce834-fb8f-49c1-a2c4-38df2f712f7c-noD1QT5 

How Investor Education and Protection Fund Was Formed?

The IEPF was formed by the Central Government in the year 2016 to address the ever-increasing issue of dormant and unclaimed shares of companies. Earlier the shares were bought at smaller prices which led to them being overlooked by the stockholder in the following years. This was often due to non-substantial growth of shares in a time span of five or ten years. However, years later, once the shares made substantial growth then the same people came running to the company asking for dividends for their shares. 

However, before IEPF, there was no defined mechanism to address the situation mentioned above as after so many years, companies found it hard to verify the ownership and calculate net dividends for dormant funds. Some companies used to transfer these unclaimed dividends to the public welfare account of the government and so had no money after years to give to investors coming back for their dormant shares. Others would keep the dividends to themselves for years and use it for their benefit while telling the government that they are expecting the investors to come back and claim the dividends. 

But this shady practice gave rise to black money. Many companies kept the unclaimed funds as they won’t have to give a detailed account of the money. This was because they would simply say that these are dormant funds with no known claimant. To regularize the dormant funds and their associated dividends, the government came up with a regulatory body to enforce regulatory norms for such funds. This was the reason for establishment of a statutory body named IEPF Authority. The authority employed fund managers to handle the claims related to unclaimed funds. This authority was also responsible to frame rules related to transfer of dormant funds and unclaimed dividends.

Rules Related to Dormant Funds by IEPF Authority

IEPF authority regularly comes up with regulations regarding the unclaimed dividends lying dormant with listed firms. As per the current norms, the companies publish the list of unclaimed dividends of investors with details on their website every fiscal year. This has been made a mandatory practice for the companies to ensure transparency in release of data related to unclaimed dividends. Also, IEPF has made it mandatory for firms to appoint a Nodal Officer that hears and resolves complaints related to unclaimed shares and dividends. the claims. The transfer or nodal officer should also handle the firm’s special unclaimed dividend account. Under the IEPF regulations, this account is mandatory and must be created by each listed company. This account holds unclaimed dividends after 30 days for 7 years. Post the seven years period, the unclaimed shares gets transferred to the IEPF. 

It is also mandatory for a Nodal Officer to send a verification report to the IEPF’s fund manager. This report is sent along with other documents mandated by IEPF to the fund manager of the IEPF.  The documents also contain the claim application form and should be sent to authority within 15 days after receiving from the claimant’s end. Any failure in meeting the compliance norms could invoke compliance-related action against the company from the IEPF Authority. The companies need to keep IEPF informed about any changes made to the company’s Nodal or Deputy Nodal Officer’s positions.

Necessity of Legal Help to Claim ONGC’s Shares

In the previous sections, we explored how a small investment made in ONGC shares could increase to inflated values. We also looked at the annual report of the company to look at the previous dates of Dividend transfers to the IEPF the dividends released each year by ONGC for its stockholders. Now we will take a stroll through the process of claiming unclaimed shares from IEPF. This is so because, after understanding the complete process one can easily understand why legal help is needed to get the claimed shares from the authority.

If you have unclaimed dividends of ONGC that are unclaimed but not for more than o 7 years, then an investor can ask the status of the funds from the nodal officer of the company. An investor can search the details of their shares and simply contact the ONGC’s appointed agent and registrar with share ownership proofs and relevant documents. Following are the details of the Nodal officer appointed by the ONGC for such purposes.

Nodal Officer: Shri M E V Selvamm

Company Secretary

Contact.: +91 11 26754080

Deputy Nodal Officer: Shri S B Singh

Deputy Company Secretary

Contact.: +91 11 26754085

source: https://www.ongcindia.com/wps/wcm/connect/31cce834-fb8f-49c1-a2c4-38df2f712f7c/ONGC_AR_2019-20.pdf?MOD=AJPERES&CONVERT_TO=url&CACHEID=ROOTWORKSPACE-31cce834-fb8f-49c1-a2c4-38df2f712f7c-noD1QT5

The nodal officer has all the details regarding the shares owned by any investor. And thus, even old investors of the ONGC can ask for the status of their owned shares from its nodal officer. If the shares are older than 7 years then the process of getting the shares goes through the IEPF authority. The claimant needs to get his share details from the nodal officer and then apply on the IEPF’s portal with his details to place the claim. Post this, he needs to download the filled form and compile all the other prescribed documents from the authority. The compiled list of documents along with the form is sent to the Nodal officer who then creates a verification report. This report is created within 15 days of receipt of application from the claimant.

After receiving the application, the nodal officer verifies all the documents and creates a verification report for the claimant authorising his ownership. This report along with the claim form is sent to the IEPF authority for final verification. The fund manager at the IEPF authority verifies the claims and takes the final decision on the claim form. He can either accept the application and sanction the claim, ask for some more document for further clarity, or plainly reject the claim.

The strict scrutiny from the fund manager at the IEPF generally leads to furnishing more documents. Now, remaining in continuous touch with the authority for the claim resolution period could be hard for a common investor. This is why hiring a legal and financial consultancy firm is a good idea. The experts of these firms help a company in liaising with the authority and nodal officer to furnish any missing document. They also help the investor by claiming ownership of shares if the original shareholder dies. These are the reasons why hiring a legal and financial consultancy is necessary.

To Conclude…

So in this writing piece, we understood why hiring a financial and legal consultancy is necessary to get an IEPF unclaimed dividend. We also understood the rich history of ONGC to understand the mammoth growth it has been able to achieve since its inception. The company has also recently got into agreements with foreign companies to research for gas or petroleum mining sites. The company is also doing extensive research in the area of alternative energy. All of this stuff indicates the future of the company is bright. The trust of the investors has obviously grown in the past few years. The company has always released handsome dividends for its investors over the years leading to its shares showing significant growth. All of these reasons make the prospect of recovery of ONGC shares from IEPF a profitable decision.

With this we have come to the conclusion that recovery of shares with the help of a reputed financial consultancy can be really easy. The business owners need to get the help of these firms to save time and work hours of liaising with the nodal officers and IEPF authority. The immense growth in shares could give a healthy share of capital to investors who have just found old physical shares of ONGC from their grandparents or parents. We recommend the investors to immediately consult a legal and financial advisory firm if they have old physical shares of Ongc but transferred to the IEPF.

The post Recovery of Unclaimed Dividends of ONGC from IEPF appeared first on MUDS.

Hindustan Unilever Limited (HUL) is one of the largest Indian FMCG conglomerates and has constantly provided handsome returns and dividends on its shareholding to its investors.  With business growing continuously, Hindustan Unilever company has taken humongous strides in growth over the past two decades. Now, since the inception of IEPF, the company has started depositing a huge chunk of its unclaimed dividends to it as it has a lot of dormant shares due to long years of operation.

There are a huge no. of shares and dividends transferred by Hindustan Unilever Limited to the IEPF.  This might make some people scroll through their investment history to find if they have any unclaimed shares of HUL left dormant or not. To those who do have old shares (count 25+ years) of Hindustan Unilever Limited, have a permanent reason to smile. These shares would now have increased to tremendous values. We can say that finding dormant shares of HUL and raising a claim for the same from IEPF can make any investor rich. To get answers to queries like what is IEPF? and how old dormant shares of HUL are going to make someone rich in a short span? stay with us till the end of this piece.

Brief about Hindustan Unilever Limited’s History

Hindustan Unilever Limited is a leading name among Indian manufacturers. It is based in the country and is a market leader among consumer goods companies. Its consumer goods business comprises home and personal care products, foods, and refreshments products. Its other segments are Home Care products, detergent bars, and powders, cleaning liquids, scourers, and water business. It also has Beauty products in the categories of oral care, skincare and haircare, deodorants, talcum powder, color cosmetics, and salon services. The Foods & Refreshment segment includes staples, culinary products, coffee, tea, frozen desserts, and others. It’s nutritional products include infant care products, health food drinks like Horlicks, Boost, Maltova, and Viva.

HUL is one of India’s leading private sector FMCG companies and among the firsts to complete 75 years. Over the years, the shares of Hindustan Unilever Limited have shown tremendous growth leading to the company giving bonus shares and splitting its stocks. In this blog, we will understand how the value of even a small investment in Hindustan Unilever Limited could be worth millions at today’s rates.  We will also understand what will be the ideal way for the investor to recover such an amount? Let us understand the growth with the following hypothetical scenario.

Calculation

• Suppose an investor had 900 shares of Hindustan Unilever Limited registered in 1978 which would have cost approx Rs. 1200 considering the share price of HUL in 1997 was around 2.7 rs. Per share.
• Now, the prices of Hindustan Unilever Limited shares have kept on increasing since 1978 and the company had announced a decent no. of bonus shares for its investors over the years. Let us look at the bonus history of HUL in the following table.

Bonus History of HUL

• If we look closely, the bonus shares announced in 1979 were in the ratio 1:3 which meant for every three shares owned by the investor, HUL gave one bonus share. So the total value of shares in 1979 became 1200 ( 900 original + 300 bonus ) shares.
• Similarly, in 1983, the company announced bonus shares in the 3:5. This took the total no. of shares to  1920 (1200 original + 720 bonus shares).
• With bonus shares announcement in ratio 1:1 in 1987, the total no. of shares became 3840 (1920 original + 1920 bonus). 
• Lastly, in 1991, bonus shares were announced in the ratio 1:2 which took the total no of shares to 5760 (3840 original + 1920 bonus shares).
• The stock prices of HUL kept on increasing in the following years and hence the company had to cut down per share price by announcement of stock split in the ratio 1:10. This increased the existing no. of shares 10 times and decreased the per share price by 1/10th. Hence, the overall value of investment remained unchanged. Stock split decreased per share price of HUL and made the share affordable for small retail investors. The following table gives details of the stock split announced in 2000.

• Due to the stock split in 2000, which was in the ratio 1:10 took the total no. of shares to 57600. Each share had the same value of 1/10 of the earlier value of a single stock.
• Now the value of shares have kept on increasing over the years and the total value of investment as per the rate of May 2021 becomes:

57600 shares x Rs. 2,340.05 = Rs. 13,47,86,880 (Thirteen Crores Forty Seven Lakhs Eighty Six Thousand Eight Hundred and Eighty).

The above amount is obviously indicating a humongous increase in share prices in 40+ years. This data is enough to show why is it a good idea to go for the IEPF recovery of shares of Hindustan Unilever Limited.

As one can see, from the above calculation, the Hindustan Unilever shares from three decades ago can fetch a huge amount to its investors. The company has also given its investors huge dividends for the shares and has been a preferred stock of many people. If we add the returns made by the dividends to the total amount calculated in the previous calculation, then the corresponding net returns on the investment will be even more than the share growth. These huge figures are clear indicators which suggest that old shares of HUL are a hidden treasure. In the next section, we have shown the data of dividends released by HUL in the previous two and a half decades. Investors could easily calculate net dividends offered by the firm. We have followed it up with information on recovery of shares from IEPF.

Dividend History of Hindustan Unilever Limited

The following table has a detailed account of dividends released by HUL in the past 2.5 decades. Investors can simply run an analysis of the table and find out the corresponding dividends for the required year.

As per the IEPF rules a company is obliged to give details of the shareholders who have unclaimed dividends. Investors can refer to such lists to find out whether their old shares have been transferred to the IEPF by the company or not. After knowing the status of their share, they can choose the appropriate way to claim the shares. If the shares have not been transferred to the IEPF yet, then they can approach the nodal officer of the company to claim the unclaimed shares and dividends.

The HUL shareholders can reach its nodal officer with the prescribed set of documents to prove their ownership of shares and the dividends. Here are the details of the HUL’s Nodal officer.

Mr. Mr. Dev Bajpai (Nodal Officer)

Email: Comsec.hul@unilever.com   

Deputy Nodal Officer

Mr. Satheesh H K

Email: Satheesh.HK@unilever.com 

An investor can check the status of their unclaimed dividend of Hindustan Unilever Limited and associated returns on the following link:

Understanding IEPF Authority and its Rules

The GoI has set a target of making our country a 5 trillion-dollar economy before 2024. To achieve this target, it has to continuously reform the financial and other economic sectors of the country. Be it IBC 2016 or any other banking reforms, the Govt. has been taking decisions to make the Indian financial sector more organised. The introduction of IEPF or Investor Education and Protection Fund was also one such reformist step in the year 2016. Since Independence, the Indian stock market had no regulations for dormant dividends. Neither it had any statutory body that can oversee the problem of unclaimed dividends.

In 2016, the IEPF authority came up with the regulations associated with unclaimed shares and Dividend after its inception. The IEPF regulations along with the Companies Act 2013 made it mandatory for all listed companies to transfer dormant shares to its fund. These were the basic changes suggested in the rules and the subsequent amendments were made for transfer of unclaimed dividends to the IEPF fund.

• An investor can claim dividends from the company within 30 days of declaration.
• The companies need to create a separate unclaimed dividend account to transfer unclaimed shares older than 30 days. 
• If the investor wants to claim the dividends, they need to raise a request to the company’s transfer or nodal officer with the prescribed set of ownership documents.
• The company must inform the stockholders that their dividends have been transferred to the company’s unclaimed dividend account. The stockholders can claim it in the next seven years before they get transferred to the IEPF.
• The company must release the information regarding dividend transfers to the shareholders through email and letters.
• If the investor fails to claim dividends from the company’s unclaimed dividend account for 7 continuous years, then the dividends must be transferred to IEPF.
• The company has to release a list of investors whose shares have been transferred to the IEPF every year.
• After seven years, the stockholders must raise the claim to IEPF to get the dividends. The claim can be made with the help of a financial and legal advisory firm.

With these rules, the process of claiming the dormant dividend streamlined. The whole process has become more transparent. The process to claim dividends is also fairly organised and goes through a lot of scrutiny. This ensures that the dividends go in right hands and are free of any fraud.

Before the IEPF regulations, the businesses used to transfer unclaimed dividends or shares to the public funds for welfare schemes. Govt. then used such funds for various public welfare works and various development of infrastructure. Since the cases of people forgetting shareholdings in a corporation were increasing, the Govt. realized that the investors are facing huge losses which can be used for their own finances. Therefore, the Govt. decided to establish IEPF. It provides investors a simple solution to claim their dormant shares. All they needed was to apply online for their dormant shares and share their ownership documents to the nodal officer of the company. The rest of the work was to be done by the nodal officer and IEPF authority.

The Government took care of the unclaimed dividend through IEPF authority and thus got rid of the accumulating dormant share problem. Even the companies were regularised and the circle of black money was obliterated. This has obviously brought transparency to the existing system and led to increased trust among investors. With the IEPF rules, investors are rest assured that their valuable money won’t be lost even if they forget about their investment.

Process to Claim Dividends of HUL from IEPF

The process to claim dividends of HUL from IEPF might be a complicated venture. This is specially the case for business owners who don’t have much knowledge about the legalities involved in it. In the following sections, we have tried to explain the process in a simple manner in which even a layman could understand the process. Let us understand the claim procedure in a step by step manner:

1. The shareholder is advised to contact the company’s nodal officer and get all the details concerning owned shares and the claim process.  The nodal officer will give the investor a list of documents that are submitted with the claim form.
2. The investor then needs to file the IEPF claim form by visiting the IEPF website. This can be done by submitting personal details and details regarding ownership of shares.
3. After filing the claim form, the claimant should take a printout and compile the copies of necessary documents prescribed on the IEPF website and by the Nodal officer.
4. After compilation, the claimant should send the file to the Nodal officer who will verify the detail and documents. He will investigate the ownership of shares and verify the details.
5. The nodal officer creates a claim verification report based on the submitted details and sends it within 15 days of receiving to the IEPF Authority fund manager.
6. The fund manager after receiving the verification file starts scrutinising it along with the application form and other documents.
7. After verification, the fund manager takes one of the following decisions:

• He can ask for additional documents from the claimant through the nodal officer.
• He may reject the application due to any error or missing documents not furnished by the claimant.
• He can sanction the claimed shares or dividends after verification.

To conclude…

So, in this blog we have understood how the shares of the HUL bought in the late seventies could be worth more than crores in today’s values. We have also understood how recovery of these shares could prove immensely profitable for investors. However, the whole process of claiming the shares from the IEPF could take time. This is because the process requires constant liaising with nodal officers and IEPF fund managers. For busy investors this could prove to be a lot of work.

To ease out the process of claiming shares from the IEPF, a claimant can take help from any reputed financial and legal consultancy. These companies have experienced professionals who can help the investors in the recovery of shares in India. The investors can simply provide all the documents and relevant details to them and they will take care of the whole process. They will conduct regular liaising with the nodal officer and IEPF authority till successful transfer of shares.

The post Recovery of Unclaimed Dividends from IEPF of Hindustan Unilever Limited appeared first on MUDS.

Shares of the SBI have always been a reliable deal for any Investor. The largest bank of India has been there since 8 years after the independence and has been a major fixture in the growth story of India as a developing country. The state-owned bank has been quite prolific in providing heavy dividends to its customers over the years.

In this blog, we will study about the recovery of old or dormant shares of the State Bank of India from IEPF. Now, for those who don’t know what IEPF is, we have also added a section explaining in brief about IEPF, its rules, and regulation. By the end of the blog, the reader will have a clear understanding of why it is considered profitable to recover unclaimed dividends of State Bank of India shares from IEPF.

History of the State Bank of India

State Bank of India (SBI) is an India-based State-Owned banking and financial services firm. The term used for these entities is Public Sector Banks. SBI is not only India’s Largest PSB but also the largest bank followed by HDFC Bank Ltd. The various sectors SBI operates in include Corporate/Wholesale Banking, Treasury, Retail Banking and Other Financial/Banking Business. The Treasury segment comprises trading in foreign exchange contracts, investment portfolio, and derivative contracts. The Corporate/Wholesale Banking sector includes lending activities of big corporate accounts groups, stressed assets resolution groups, and commercial client’s groups. This sector also includes allocating loans based on the client’s history and transaction services to institutional or corporate clients. Retail Banking services encompass all the retail branches, primarily including Personal Banking activities like lending capital to corporate customers with a good background and history of working with the bank. Other Business segments of SBI include running day to day operations of all its Non-Banking subsidiaries or Joint Ventures other than SBI General Insurance Co. Ltd. and SBI Life Insurance Co. Ltd. of the group.  The bank has almost 22,100 branches across the country with 58,555 working ATMs.

The company has been a cash cow for the Government of India since its inception. Along with LIC, it has been the major financier for most of the Government’s projects and welfare schemes. The company has been a survivor of various economic slowdowns the country has faced and still emerged as the best PSB among all. The company’s success though is largely dedicated to its impeccable administration largely monitored by brilliant banking managers. 

The slowdown created by the COVID-19 lockdown in 2020 was not able to hinder the growth of its shares as the company’s shares showed a growth of 10.63% in June, 7.28% in July, and 10.73% in August. With the exception of a drop in prices in September 2020, the company’s shares have managed steady growth in the past 5 months. 

The company has been quite generous in giving its clients handsome dividends. This has also added to the reliability of the company in generating profits for its investors. The company shares used to trade at a lower price in the initial days also in the 90s when the slowdown of 1992 happened and India was just opening up its economy. During this period, many people have bought some shares at a lower price and thinking that it will not show growth, forgot about the investment. However, even that small investment would have grown big only if the investors claimed a dividend on it. 

In the following sections, we will demonstrate by a hypothetical calculation how even a small amount invested in SBI shares in 1995 would have grown to manifolds by 2021. This calculation will thus show why recovering shares or dividends of SBI is a profitable venture. 

Calculation related to SBI Shares

• Suppose your grandfather had 800 shares of State Bank of India registered in November 1998.
• Now, the price of 1 share of State Bank of India, as of November 1998, is Rs. 14.19. Thus, the total value of your grandpa’s shares as of November 1998 was,

Rs. 14.19 x 800 shares = Rs. 11352 (Eleven Thousand Three Hundred Fifty Two).

• The above amount is the net amount of money invested by your grandfather in November 1998 in the SBI shares. As you can see this is a relatively small amount and there is a chance that he could have stopped caring about dividends received on such a small investment compared to the other big ones. 
• Now in the year 2014, SBI announced a stock split in the ratio of 1:10. This meant that every 1 share of value Rs.10 was split into 10 shares of value Rs. 1. A stock split is done by the companies to accommodate small retail investors in its portfolio who couldn’t buy shares due to high price. 

• Now due to the shares, the total no. of shares which was just 800 at the time now became 8000 due to the stock split. 
• However, even after the split, the total price of the shares kept on increasing and the net amount associated with the shares increased in proportion. The total value of the investment as per February 2021 is,

Rs. 390.15 x 8000 shares = Rs. 31, 21, 200 (Thirty One Lakhs Twenty One Thousand Two Hundred).

• So, you can see on just a small investment of Rs. 11352 your grandfather’s shares would have fetched a return of Rs. 31, 32, 200. This is a growth of almost 27500%. And this is just the growth in share prices we are talking about. If we add the corresponding dividends provided by the company in the last twenty three years then the corresponding returns could have crossed more than fifty lakhs. 

Source for the data: https://in.investing.com/equities/state-bank-of-india-historical-data?end_date=1615268059&interval_sec=monthly&st_date=631823400 

https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/state-bank-of-india/infocompanysplits/companyid-11984.cms 

With the above calculation, it is quite clear that the values of money invested in SBI two decades ago have multiplied exponentially as per today’s value. Therefore, if you or any of your elders have any dormant shares left from age-old investments in SBI, then it could prove to be really profitable for your business to recover them. However, recovery via traditional means of reaching the company with the physical share certificate might not be possible in today’s scenarios. Government has come up with fresh rules claiming dividends which are older than 7 years and one must understand about these new rules and regulations before applying for a claim. 

In the coming sections, we have attached some data sheets and information related to dividends released by SBI in the last two decades and the unclaimed dividends. One can study the information in the sheets before moving on to understand the process of claiming a refund of shares from IEPF. 

Dividends Shared by SBI in Last Decades

https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/state-bank-of-india/infocompanydividends/companyid-11984.cms

Data on Unclaimed Shares As Per Annual Report 2019-20

Source: https://sbi.co.in/corporate/AR1920/pdf/SBI%20AR%202020.pdf

How Investor Education and Protection Fund Was Formed?

The IEPF or Investors Education and Protection Fund were established by the Central Government in 2016 to address the ever-increasing problem of dormant or unclaimed shares with dividends. The shares bought at a really small price or any small investment made in the share market by a small retail investor often tends to be overlooked due to small returns. However, years later once the returns grew significantly, these same people would come running to claim their dormant shares. 

Earlier, there was no defined mechanism to address the situations mentioned above where people came years after buying shares to claim the dividends on them. Some companies used to transfer their unclaimed dividends to the welfare account of the government to be spent in public welfare schemes while others would just keep the dividends to themselves saying that they are expecting the investors to come back and lay the claim on the dividends. 

But this gave rise to shady practice, as many companies had lots of dormant funds lying with them which they can use for their own advantages. So, to regularize the dormant funds and associated dividends the government had to come up with a regulatory body. This became the reason for the formation of the statutory body named IEPF Authority. The authority had fund managers who would handle the claims related to dormant funds. The authority was also responsible to frame rules and regulations related to dormant funds and unclaimed dividend transfer. 

Rules Related to Dormant Funds by IEPF Authority

IEPF authority consistently comes up with rules and regulations regarding the unclaimed dividends lying with companies. As per the current rules, the companies are required to publish the list of unclaimed dividends and shareholders details on their website every financial year. This is done to keep the unclaimed dividend data of the company for the previous financial year in the public domain. Also, companies are required to send timely reminders to all of its shareholders in writing and on-call/SMS/email to claim their declared dividends on time before they get moved to the IEPF funds. IEPF has also made it mandatory for the companies to appoint an officer (Nodal Officer) to address the claims or any other issue related to the claim of dividends. The Nodal or transfer officer should also handle the company’s special unclaimed dividend account where unclaimed dividends of more than 30 days lie for 7 years and later get transferred to IEPF if no one claims them. 

The Nodal Officer of the company is liable under the IEPF rules to send the verification report along with other documents and claim application form to the IEPF authority within 15 days of receiving the claim file form the claimant. Any failure in meeting this compliance could invoke compliance-related charges against the company by the IEPF Authority. The companies are also needed to keep IEPF informed about any new changes in the company Nodal or deputy Nodal Officer’s position. They should also keep the contact information for the nodal officers updated on their website. 

The Necessity of Legal Help to Claim SBI’s Dormant Shares?

So, in the previous sections, we explored what a small investment made in SBI shares in the 90s looks like in today’s value. We also looked at the data related to dividends released by the company and the unclaimed shares according to the annual report of the company. After understanding about the IEPF we must tell you why it is necessary to get a legal consultant by your side before you move on to the process of laying a claim on the dormant SBI shares. So before we tell you the importance of legal counsel let us first understand in brief the process of claiming shares from IEPF:

If you have unclaimed dividends of a company that are not older than 7 years, then they must be lying in the special unclaimed dividend account of SBI. You can search about the details of your shares and then simply contact the SBI’s appointed transfer agent and registrar with ownership proofs and relevant documents of the shares to claim the dividends on such shares. Below are the details of the appointed transfer agent of SBI.

M/s Alankit Assignments Limited – Registrar & Transfer Agent (RTA)

Head Office :

Alankit Heights, 3E/7, Jhandewalan Extension,

New Delhi-110055

Tel. No. 011-42541234

Virtual No: 7290071335

If the funds are older than 7 years or way too old (bought by your father or your grandfather) then the process to claim such shares begins at filing the Claim form 5 on the IEPF’s website. After raising the claim the claimant needs to send the printout of the filled claim form with all the relevant documents including the share ownership documents to the designated transfer AGENT/ REGISTRAR of the SBI. The verifies all the documents and prepares a verification report accordingly. This report is sent to the IEPF authority along with all the other documents. The authority then verifies these documents and takes its final decision on sanctioning the claim.

Now, you might have noticed that the scrutiny for the forms/documents takes place at both stages i.e. by the Nodal officer/transfer agent and by the Fund manager of the IEPF. Any documents missing will be asked to furnish from the claimant. Any mistake in the form will be sent for rectification by the claimant. Also if there is any glitch in the ownership documents or proving heirship over the age-old shares then the application could be rejected altogether. Because of all these reasons, the process to claim the dividends/shares become tiresome and time consuming for a normal claimant. They won’t find time every day to furnish documents or meet in person to clear any doubt or mistake. Also proving ownership/heirship could prove to be tough if multiple heirs are claiming for ownership. 

All of these issues could be easily avoided by hiring a legal consultancy firm to take care of the dividend claim from IEPF.  A consultancy firm will take over the job from you at a reasonable cost and will take care of all the hustle and liaising with the authority or Nodal officer related to any documents. Proving ownership for shares will also not be difficult legally with the help of expert consultants. So that is the answer to the big question: Why is it necessary to get a legal consultant firm by your side before applying to claim the money from IEPF?

To Conclude…

So that brings us to the end of this article. We have seen in this article how SBI shares bought in 1998 could have fetched a return of almost 27500 %, that too without adding dividends for the years. If this figure is not enough to convince someone that claiming SBI shares from IEPF is a good deal then no one knows what else can convince them. The fact is SBI shares have always been profitable as it has been India’s most prolific bank for years. Apart from LIC and Indian Railways, SBI has been perhaps the most valued public sector undertaking of the Government of India. 

The Finance minister in her speech on the occasion of the merger of 10 major PSBs in 2019 said that the Government of India is planning to have only four to five state-owned major banks with exceptionally high market capitalisation to work in the country. In that case, SBI will be the biggest bank even among those envisioned by the government. Therefore, the valuation of any holdings from any year in SBI is bound to grow manifolds. 

Investors should consider the money spent in hiring a legal consultant to get the unclaimed dividends as a small investment to fetch a huge jackpot. This is obviously due to the case of the unprecedented growth in shares of SBI and the higher dividends provided by it which has never stopped. So even recovering a small amount from the past could prove out to be really profitable. With the current grim times of economic slowdown initiated by the COVID-19 Pandemic, any amount of monetary help could do wonders to any business. If you are a small business owner and an investor then recovery of SBI shares could prove to be especially useful for you as it might bring the necessary capital needed to give your business the much-needed push. And because the money would be your very own, you will avoid falling into any debt trap.

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If you have shareholdings of the Bata India Ltd. or your father or grandfather have old physical share certificate of the company then this blog will be an important read for you. This blog is also for understanding the difference between unclaimed shares and dormant shares.

The old shares of Bata can fetch huge profits for an investor but should understand the whole process to claim them. With the current provisions of the government in place, an investor might need to raise the claim for dividends related to old shares with IEPF. In the following sections, we will study the history of Bata India Ltd. its share growth. We will also demonstrate its share growth by taking an example of a hypothetical investment. We will follow this up with some data about dividends released by the company over two decades and then study the IEPF and its share claim process.

History of Bata India Limited

Bata India Limited is a company known for its business of producing high and middle-range footwear and its trading throughout India. The company also sells various accessories through its pan India network of retail and wholesale units. The company is also into the development of surplus property in the real estate segment of the Indian Market. Its footwear manufacturing and the trading segment are responsible for carrying out the production of various types of footwear or all price ranges. The segment is also responsible for the manufacturing of various accessories and their sale in the market through its retail and wholesale outlets. Its surplus property development arm is responsible for developing surplus property at the place named Batanagar in India. Its retail outlet network comprises over 1,200 stores spread across all major cities in the country. It also has an operating network of non-retail distribution networks which operates through its urban wholesale division and caters to a variety of customers through almost 30,000 dealers. The accessories offered by the company for women include handbags, clutches and scarves, belts. For men, its accessories collection contains shoe care products, belts, and wallets. Its brands include Bata, Bubblegummers, Bata Comfit, Hush Puppies, Weinbrenner, Power, Power,  and Naturalizer.

Over the years of its operation in the company which started way before the Indian independence, Bata has grown into a trusted brand among Indian customers. Even during the Corona crisis, the company continued its growth journey and the results for the last quarter were encouraging for the investors. In the following section, we will understand the tremendous growth in value of Bata’s shares over the past few decades through a calculation based on a hypothetical investment made in the company in 1978. 

Calculation related to Bata’s Share growth

• Suppose someone bought 100 shares of Bata in January 1978 which might have been worth a few thousand only as the share prices were quite low.
• Now, Bata has been known for giving bonus shares to its investors as a gift for their loyalty and trust in the company’s business. Bonus shares are fully paid-up shares that are introduced in a ratio by companies for shares owned by the investors. For example, if a company introduces bonus shares in the ratio of 3:5 then it will mean that for every 3 shares owned by the investor the company will give 5 shares as a bonus

Now. According to the bonus history of Bata India Ltd., it has introduced a bonus three times in the following ratio as shown in the table.

The bonus history of Bata is given in the following table:

Sources: https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/bata-india-ltd/infocompanybonus/companyid-13974.cms

• The issue of bonus shares in were 1:4 which meant 4 bonus shares for every 1 share. So, the net shares owned after this were 100 shares + 400 bonus shares = 500 shares.
• Similarly, bonus shares issued in 1984 were 2:5, that is 5 shares for every two shares. This meant that the total no. of shares was 500 shares + 1250 bonus shares = 1750 shares.
• Another bonus was introduced in 1987 in the ratio 1:1. This made the total no of shares equal to 1750 shares + 1750 bonus shares = 3500 shares.
• Now, due to the steep increase in the price of Bata India Ltd.’s shares, it announced a stock split from 2:1 in 2015 to make their shares affordable for small retail investors.

The stock split from 2 to 1 meant if the face value of a share was Rs. 10 then it has now become 2 shares of value 5 rs. each.

Source: https://thebatacompany.com/the-company/

• The stock split would have raised the total no. of shares to double that is 7000 shares.

Source:  https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/bata-india-ltd/infocompanysplits/companyid-13974.cms

• However, the price per share of Bata’s share still managed to plummet over the years and stand at the rate of Rs. 1,406.20 in March 2021.
• Considering this rate, the current value of the shareholder’s investment made in 1978 would be

7000 shares x Rs. 1406.20 = Rs. 98, 43, 400.

Source: https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/bata-india-ltd/infocompanysplits/companyid-13974.cms

 https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/bata-india-ltd/infocompanybonus/companyid-13974.cms

https://in.investing.com/equities/bata-india-historical-data?interval_sec=monthly

So, we can observe how the prices of Bata shares bought in 1978 in a few thousand rupees became almost Rs. 98.5 Lakhs by 2021. This huge share growth is enough evidence that finding old shares of Bata from an investment made by any elderly in-home or parents could be like finding lost treasure. One can simply contact any financial consultancy firm after finding such old share certificates and raise the claim with their help to the company or the IEPF authority.

The above-calculated value of shares is not the final value. It doesn’t contain the dividends shared by the company on these shares since the day they were bought. If we add the price received as dividends then the overall growth will cross limits. This is why we are saying that even after all the expenses related to shareholding and claim the final amount received on such shares would be huge enough to save the investor from any financial crisis.

In the following section, we have given a list containing dividends released by Bata India Ltd since the year 1999.  Any business analyst or investor can study this table to get the basic idea of how the dividends have grown over the years on the Bata shareholdings.  

DIVIDEND Released by Bata India Ltd.

The following table gives data on the year-by-year dividends released by Bata India Ltd. since 1999.

Source: https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/bata-india-ltd/infocompanydividends/companyid-13974.cms

What is Investor Education and Protection Fund [IEPF]?

There could be a plethora of reasons that could lead an investor to ditch his investments. Due to this, in almost every firm, dormant shares are lying within the unclaimed shares account without anyone to lay a claim on them.

Earlier, the businesses were asked by the government to transfer such dormant capital to their general public welfare account where this money might be utilized in the government’s infrastructure projects and public welfare schemes. However, there was no law to guide the businesses and therefore they were unsure about the quality procedure to resolve the difficulty of unclaimed dividends. Also, there was no procedure available for people coming after years to lay a claim on their money. Either the government could have let the businesses keep these huge amounts to themselves expecting the rightful shareholder to return for their dividend or it could simply reject the claim request of investors.

Both the choices seemed unviable as a company could use these dormant funds for its benefits. Also, neither the company nor the government has any right to reject a rightful owner from getting his value of the investment. So, to deal with this issue, the govt. came up with IEPF authority which was liable for handling the dormant shares and dividends of investors. The government also released rules for IEPF and therefore the procedure to get dividends from IEPF for the investors. We will understand in short about the provisions of IEPF for the claim of dividends before moving on to the procedure of claiming the shares.

It might be a touch hard to believe but it’s quite common for senior citizens to ditch their old shareholdings in several companies. There are many reasons for the said behaviour, such as:

• Investment of a micro capital which individuals tend to forget after a particular time thinking that it might not grow significantly.
• Health problems with senior citizens lead them to forget their investments made during adult days.
• People buy shares of a firm without naming any nominee. If they die, the shares might remain unclaimed because the possible heirs of the deceased don’t have any knowledge of the existence of such shares.
• Sometimes, there are many possible heirs of the dead person and therefore the shares in question grind to a halt in the legal battle between the parties claiming them and thus remain dormant for years till a resolution is reached.

Procedures Governing IEPF

The released provisions of the IEPF by the government stated that an investor must claim his dividend from the corporation/company within one month of its release. If the investor doesn’t claim the cash within one month then the entity is obliged to transfer this unclaimed dividend to its special unclaimed dividend account created as per IEPF rules. The unclaimed dividends will dwell in this account for seven years during which an investor can simply contact the company’s nodal officer or agency to lay claim on the dividend from this account. After seven years, the dividends must be transferred to the IEPF account and it’ll dwell in that account until a claimant makes a legitimate claim request to IEPF with relevant documents. So, all the businesses must transfer all the dormant shares from their unclaimed dividend account to the IEPF if they’re older than seven years.

The investors whose shares older than seven years are transferred to the IEPF can apply to IEPF for recovery of shares and dividends. The procedure for an equivalent is illustrated in short within the following section.

Why does one Need Legal Help?

The procedure to file a claim from IEPF is a 4 step process. 

• A claimant should reach the company’s nodal officer to get details of his shares. If the shares have been transferred to IEPF then he must make an online application on its website. 
• After making the online application the claimant should simply download the filled application and send it to the nodal officer of the company with all the relevant documents for verification.
• The nodal officer will verify all the documents and forms. Within fifteen-day, the nodal officer has to send all the documents with the application form and a verification report of the same to the IEPF Authority.
• In the last step, the authority will verify every document, application form, and verification report. If they found some discrepancy or any missing document then they will send a notice to the claimant via nodal officer to rectify the mistake within two weeks or submit the additional document. If everything is good then they may pass the claim. If there are major mistakes or faults in documents then the claim will be rejected. 

As mentioned, the method to file the claim for lost shares or unclaimed shares from IEPF is complex and an application has got to undergo intense scrutiny to be eligible for approval. Hence any small errors or non-filing of any relevant document to the IEPF authority must be avoided. To do so, a claimant can simply hire a financial consulting firm who will complete the entire process on their behalf with the responsibility of not committing any error. This may also save the investor from all the effort of liaising with the nodal officer and authority till the claim is approved.

One can simply hire a reputed financial and legal consultancy firm to file all the relevant ownership documents for the claim of shares. They will also help in handling any relevant dispute associated with ownership just in case the first owner of the shares is deceased. Therefore, the perfect procedure for claiming the shares from IEPF is by collaborating with the specialist of the procedure.

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