Now Reading: ₹1 lakh crore in unclaimed shares; govt fix cuts wait time
-
01
₹1 lakh crore in unclaimed shares; govt fix cuts wait time
Unclaimed shares and dividends worth nearly ₹1 lakh crore remained locked in the Investor Education and Protection Fund (IEPF), with claimants facing a 25-step process that took an average of three years,…
The Story in Brief
Unclaimed shares and dividends worth nearly ₹1 lakh crore remained locked in the Investor Education and Protection Fund (IEPF), with claimants facing a 25-step process that took an average of three years, revealed Sanjeev Sanyal, a member of the Prime Minister's Economic Advisory Council. Speaking at a Chennai event, Sanyal said his team found three non-communicating portals were the main bottleneck. By unifying them through application programming interfaces (APIs), the process was cut from 25 steps to 14 and from years to months.
The reform, introduced in September 2025, led to monthly approvals jumping from roughly 900 in August 2025 to 14,500 by March 2026, with share transfers more than doubling compared to any previous half-year period. Separately, SEBI's annual report showed unclaimed mutual fund dividends rose 15.7% to ₹2,689 crore by March 2026, while the overall unclaimed amount across dividends and redemptions stood at ₹3,811 crore. The regulator has also integrated holdings with DigiLocker and launched Niveshak Shivirs in six cities to help investors recover assets.
The Indian Opinion
The usual blame-the-system narrative misses the real story here. Yes, ₹1 lakh crore stuck is staggering, but the focus should be on the 90% reduction in processing time achieved through simple portal integration, not just the size of the pile. Both the government and industry love to grandstand about red tape, but this concrete result shows targeted fixes work. The real test will be in six months: will the monthly claims remain at 14,500 or drop back once the backlog is cleared? That number will separate genuine reform from a one-time clearing exercise.
Sources (2): thehindu.com, timesnownews.com
This story was synthesised by AI from the 2 sources linked above.
Updated: this story now draws on 2 sources.
