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The number of pending applications for claiming shares and dividends lying unclaimed over the years is continuously increasing. According to the annual report of the Investor Education and Protection Fund Association (IEPFA), the number of applications pending till January 2023 has gone up to 23,969 as against 756 applications pending in 2017-18. It is about 32 times more than this.

It has been said in the report that pending applications are increasing due to lack of clarification, rectification or report of the company or the claimant. By the financial year 2021-22, the number of unclaimed shares lying with IEPFA has crossed one billion. Its amount cannot be ascertained as IEPFA did not give information about its value.
On the other hand, according to the data presented in the Lok Sabha, the value of dividend lying unclaimed till October 2022 is 5,539.25 crore. The surge in pending applications is also due to the increasing number of investors seeking refunds. However, there are also a large number of investors who do not even come to claim the dividend as the amount is very less.

What are unclaimed shares and dividends?
Companies give dividends to their shareholders from time to time. If the dividend sent by the company returns unpaid from the bank, and remains unpaid for seven years, then these shares and dividends are first sent to the unclaimed suspense account and then to the IEPFA account. From October 2017, the government started sending unclaimed shares and dividends to IEPFA

Where is the matter stuck
There can be many reasons behind not claiming shares or dividends. Such as the address of the investor changes, the investor goes abroad, the death of the investor, loss of share certificates, mismatch of names or bank account closure. When the investor does not give updates related to them for seven years, then they go to the IEPF account.

Why do applications get delayed
The process of getting these shares and dividends lying in IEPF is very complicated. For this, the claimants first have to claim online by filling IEPF Form-5. After this, the hard copy of the documents has to be given to the nodal officer of the concerned company. Then it needs to be followed up with the company, its Registrar and Transfer Agent and IEPFA.

The difficulty is also that many times the claimants do not have the right information about this process and what documents are needed, so their application for the claim hangs.  Now this process has been simplified. The government has now created an integrated IT portal on the proposal of IEPF. The process of re-claiming unclaimed shares and unpaid dividends will be simplified through this portal. Those shareholders will be able to visit IEPF IT Portal to see whether their unclaimed shares have been transferred to IEPF or not.

After this, they can claim their shares or dividends directly through the portal by following the prescribed procedure. Investors will get real time information about their application status on the portal and any shortcoming can be updated on the portal.