The Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA) on Tuesday said it has
recovered depositors’ money worth Rs 1,514 crore from the Peerless
General Finance and Investment Company, which was pending with the
entity for the last 15 years.
The money was recovered by the Investor Education and Protection Fund (IEPF) Authority, which is
part of the MCA and has been set up for promotion of investor awareness and protection of the interest of investors.
“The matter came to the notice of the Authority recently and within a short time due to the proactive action of the Authority the said sum has now been transferred to IEPF. This amount was taken by the company by issuing about 1.49 core deposit certificates and includes more than one crore individual investors,” the Corporate Affairs Ministry said.
Data submitted by the company revealed that 50.77 per cent of the total amount was taken in form of deposit certificates of value of Rs 2,000 or less. In terms of numbers, such certificates form 85.32 per cent of the total certificates issued. The majority of these investors are common citizens belonging to the lower and middle income groups, including daily wage earners, the Ministry said.
“Geographically, the investors involved belong to 30 states and Union territories. Majority of the investors belong to the state of West Bengal,” it revealed.
The Authority has also acted against companies that have transferred the unpaid dividend amount to IEPF but have failed to transfer shares in accordance with Section 124 (6) of the Companies Act. In some other cases, companies are showing unclaimed and unpaid amounts in their balance sheets but have not transferred this to IEPF even after seven years.
The Authority issued more than 4,000 notices to such companies under Section 206(4) of the Act for calling information. It has been noticed that there are many companies, including non-banking financial companies, which have neither refunded these amounts back to their entitled investors nor have transferred such amounts to IEPF even after expiry of the period of seven years.
The Authority is also commissioning an online facility to collect primary information directly from retail investors about the deposits which have matured and are pending with various entities for repayment or payment of interests. This online report will capture only essential fields with various drop-down options. —FE
The money was recovered by the Investor Education and Protection Fund (IEPF) Authority, which is
part of the MCA and has been set up for promotion of investor awareness and protection of the interest of investors.
“The matter came to the notice of the Authority recently and within a short time due to the proactive action of the Authority the said sum has now been transferred to IEPF. This amount was taken by the company by issuing about 1.49 core deposit certificates and includes more than one crore individual investors,” the Corporate Affairs Ministry said.
Data submitted by the company revealed that 50.77 per cent of the total amount was taken in form of deposit certificates of value of Rs 2,000 or less. In terms of numbers, such certificates form 85.32 per cent of the total certificates issued. The majority of these investors are common citizens belonging to the lower and middle income groups, including daily wage earners, the Ministry said.
“Geographically, the investors involved belong to 30 states and Union territories. Majority of the investors belong to the state of West Bengal,” it revealed.
The Authority has also acted against companies that have transferred the unpaid dividend amount to IEPF but have failed to transfer shares in accordance with Section 124 (6) of the Companies Act. In some other cases, companies are showing unclaimed and unpaid amounts in their balance sheets but have not transferred this to IEPF even after seven years.
The Authority issued more than 4,000 notices to such companies under Section 206(4) of the Act for calling information. It has been noticed that there are many companies, including non-banking financial companies, which have neither refunded these amounts back to their entitled investors nor have transferred such amounts to IEPF even after expiry of the period of seven years.
The Authority is also commissioning an online facility to collect primary information directly from retail investors about the deposits which have matured and are pending with various entities for repayment or payment of interests. This online report will capture only essential fields with various drop-down options. —FE
No comments:
Post a Comment