The Investor Education and Protection Fund (IEPF) is to be inter alia utilised for distribution of disgorged amount among eligible and identifiable applicants who have suffered losses due to wrong actions by any person, in accordance with the orders made by the Court which had ordered disgorgement. Till 05.02.2020, no such order for distribution of any amount has been received. This was stated by Shri Anurag Singh Thakur, Union Minister of State for Finance & Corporate Affairs, in a written reply to a question in Lok Sabha today.
During the last three years no funds have been allocated from IEPF Authority to Non-Government Organisations (NGOs) and hence no complaints regarding misappropriation of funds by NGOs have been received in the last three years. The IEPF is inter-alia utilised for settlement of claims filed by Claimants and promotion of investor education, awareness and promotion.
Giving more details, Shri Thakur gave details of performance by the IEPF Authority during the last three years as under:-
S. No.
Particulars
2016-17
2017-18
2018-19
1
Number of Claims disposed
18
623
1,037
2
Amount Refunded to claimants (Rs. in lakh)
47.4
72.9
177.7
3
Number of Shares Refunded to claimants
Nil
Nil
5,00,771
4
Number of Investor Awareness Programmes (IAPs) conducted
2,171
5,876
27,639
Shri Thakur also stated that the IEPF Authority has a toll free helpline to provide the status of refund applications to the Claimants. The number also provides a mechanism for the companies to provide resolution with reference to the various forms relating to the IEPF filed by them. An Interactive Voice Response System (IVRS) has also put in place which gives information about the status of the claim filed by the Claimant. Giving more details about the helpline, he said that during the period from September, 2019 to January. 2020, 16,736 calls were answered through the helpline.
The IEPF Authority organizes Investor Awareness Programmes (IAPs), for creating awareness amongst the Investors as a part of its mandate. During the last 3 years, 35,686 such programmes have been organised in rural and urban areas of the country. Apart from this, awareness creating messages are disseminated from time to time through print and electronic media.