Unclaimed assets in India: How to claim your deposits with IEPF — an explainer

Around ₹1.84 lakh crore worth of financial assets remain unclaimed by banks and regulatory authorities. Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman recently launched a drive to ensure that this money reaches its rightful owners.

On 4 October, Nirmala Sitharaman kicked off a three-month national campaign titled Apki Poonji, Apka Adhikar at Ahmedabad.

She pointed out that unclaimed money lying with banks or the Investor Education Protection Fund (IEPF) is absolutely safe. If it remains unclaimed, the money moves from one institution to another. The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has created the UDGAM portal to help depositors track this unclaimed money.

What is UDGAM?

UDGAM is the Unclaimed Deposits Gateway to Access Information, which gives the search facility for unclaimed deposits of 30 banks. To be able to use this service, you have to first register on the portal by giving your name, phone number, password and CAPTCHA.

Claim from the bank

Once you are aware that the unclaimed deposit is with the bank or IEPF, you can send an application to claim it.

To claim the money, you need to approach the respective bank. For instance, if your account is with SBI, you need to visit SBI's branch with all the necessary KYC documents.

If you want to activate your bank account, the branch will accept the request and reactivate the account once proper KYC is carried out. In case of final claims along with the account's closure, the branch will accept the customer's specific request to process it accordingly.

This is how you can claim your deposits on IEPF:

I. First, you need to access the IEPF-5 web form to file the claim for refund. It is advisable to read the instructions on the website along with the web form before you start filling it out.

II. After the form is filled out, you need to submit the duly filled form. Once you submit it successfully, an acknowledgement will be generated indicating the SRN, which is used for tracking the application in future.

III. Take a printout of IEPF-5 as well as of the acknowledgement after uploading the form.

IV. Now, you are supposed to submit an indemnity bond in original, a copy of the acknowledgement, and the IEPF-5 form along with the other documents mentioned in the Form IEPF-5 to the company's nodal officer (IEPF) at its registered office in an envelope marked ‘Claim for refund from IEPF Authority’.

V. All the claim forms which are completed in all aspects will be verified by the concerned company and based on the verification report, IEPF authority will issue online transfer to the bank account of claimant to carry out refund.

For all personal finance updates, visit here