Revised guidelines for companies to facilitate the claimant’s refund by IEPF Authority
The Ministry of Corporate Affairs through its notification [1] No. 7/5/2017-IEPFA, dated July 19, 2018 has revised and updated the guidelines for the companies in order to facilitate the refund of the claims by IEPF authority considering the resubmission options available in the form IEPF-5. Let’s have a detailed look at the updated procedure to claim the refund mentioned in these guideline.
- Every company which has deposited shares or amount as per the provisions of section 124 or 125 of Companies Act 2013 or section 205 C of Companies Act 1956 to IEPF which is the concerned company shall appoint a Nodal Officer to maintain coordination with IEPF authority as per the provision of Rule 7 (2A) of IEPF Rules, 2016.
- The contact details of the appointed Nodal officer shall be provided to the IEPF authority within one week of issue of these guidelines on email ID “[email protected]. The details shall also be published on the official website of the company. These contact details must include designation of the Nodal officer, his or her postal address, telephone as well as mobile number and company authorized email ID.
- The concerned company should provide a secured and dedicated email ID in order to communicate with the IEPF authority. It is important to note that, the\is email ID should have enough space to accommodate emails containing large attachments likely to be sent by claimant or IEPF authority. Access and use of this email ID should be done only by the concerned company and IEPF authority shall not be held responsible for the misuse of this email ID in any circumstances.
- To make the refund procedure easy for its investors and claimant, the concerned company shall provide the access link to the webpage of IEPF authority website related to refund on their own official website.
- Once the claim is filed by the investor or the shareholder according to the procedure prescribed on the website www.iepf.gov.in, the concerned company shall verify the form along with claim and documents submitted. The company shall submit the verification report in the format specified in the annexures. This report shall be attached with all the documents suggested for form within 15 days of receipt of claim to the IEPF authority.
- The concerned company shall also make sure that photocopies of challans through which the amount was credited by the company in Government account are enclosed along with. These photocopies shall be duly attested by Nodal officer. The year wise statements duly attested by Nodal officers displaying the name of the claimant, the amount or shares to be refunded and date as well as number of challans through which money was deposited originally shall also be enclosed with the copies of challans.
- The verification report shall be submitted to IEPF authority by the concerned company in prescribed format.
- If the IEPF authority finds that the claim application is made in violation of the procedure mentioned on the website www.iepf.gov.in, then the verification report shall not be entertained.
- The verification report shall be submitted by the appointed Nodal officer of the concerned company to the IEPF authority. The address is, IEPF Authority, Ground Floor, Jeevan Vihar Building, 3, Parliament Street, New Delhi-110001. No communication through other mode or address shall be entertained.
- To ease out the processing of the refund claims, the attachments done to the verification claim shall be in prescribed order along with appropriate indexing and labeling. Wherever applicable, attachments should be verified duly by the Nodal officer.
- Once the verification report is attested by the Nodal officer, it is responsibility of the concerned company only to verify or detect or duplicate the claim at any point of time.
- For IEPF-5 forms which are subjected to resubmission by the authority in order to remove the deficiencies, the company shall provide revised verification report after the receipt of additional or updated documents from the claimant within 15 days of receipt of these documents. The resubmitted claim option in the verification report shall be ticked by the company and all the additional documents and attachments furnished for resubmission shall be enclosed. The additional or updated documents shall be specified under the ‘Attachment with resubmitted claim’ section of the verification report by the concerned company.
- If there is any pending lawsuit or proceedings which block the payment if the claimed amount as well as the refund of the shares to the claimant, the concerned company shall furnish complete details of the lawsuit or proceedings attached with the report to the IEPF authority. The company shall also ensure that Form IEPF-3 is files according to Rule 6(3) (b) of IEPF Rule, 2016.
- The concerned company shall make sure that the valid entitlement proof is enclosed with the claim.
