Summary of this article
IEPFA received 1.32 lakh claims over the last two years.
It has approved 75,417 claims and transferred 4.36 crore shares.
New portal upgrades and revised forms were introduced in 2025 to speed up validation and claim settlement.
Over the last two years, the Investor Education and Protection Fund Authority (IEPFA) has received a total of 1,32,545 applications from shareholders to reclaim shares and dividends. According to government data, 75,417 of these applications have been approved over the last two years, and a total of 43.6 million shares have been transferred back to the claimants. Besides, a total dividend amount of Rs 77.82 crore has also been refunded to investors during this period.
Harsh Malhotra, the Minister of State for the Ministry of Corporate Affairs and the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways, provided this data in a written reply to the Lok Sabha on July 27, 2026. The Minister was replying to the question regarding the efficiency of the reclaiming process and how the Investor Education and Protection Fund (IEPF) framework works.
The minister addressed a question regarding fixed timelines in settling the claims and accountability of companies and intermediaries, and replied that the average time taken in settling these claims is not maintained as a specific metric.
“The time taken to process claims depends upon the completeness of details and documents given by the claimant and the verification report given by the companies. The time taken would vary depending on the category and completeness of the claim. Therefore, average time taken is not maintained,” read the reply.
However, to streamline the process, the government has implemented structural reforms. These include the Integrated Portal and Call Center, launched in August 2025 to improve claim settlement and grievance handling.
In October 2025, an updated Form IEPF-5 and the Electronic Verification Report (EVR) mechanism were also implemented with updated facilities, such as auto-fetching of the bank details linked to a destination demat account, and faster validation of shareholding details by the companies.
Does The System Use Artificial Intelligence And Data Analytics To Identify Unclaimed Assets?
The minister explained that the integrated portal now validates the demat account and the linked bank accounts using Permanent Account Number (PAN) data available with the depositories. However, in case of succession-related claims, where the original shareholder is deceased, finding information about the nominee and legal heirs remains challenging as this information is maintained at the companies’ end. As this information is not always stored in an electronic format, it is not yet linked to the centralised integrated portal.
According to the reply given in the Parliament, there are strict protocols in place under the 2016 IEPF Rules to avoid any unintended transfer of shares and dividends. Companies are required to inform shareholders at their last known address regarding any pending transfer of assets at least three months before the due date.
As per the rule, they (companies) must publish notices in both English and regional language newspapers to inform the shareholder or the concerned person that their details are available on the company website, duly mentioning the website address.
State/UT-Wise Data About Claims Settled From The IEPF
According to the reply, the government doesn’t maintain state-wise and union territory (UT)-wise data or specific details for cities. This is because the IEPF forms are filed on a company-wise basis rather than on a geographical basis.
According to the government data, a total of Rs 9,000 crore fund is lying with IEPF in the form of unclaimed dividends. Investors can check the status of their unclaimed dividends on the IEPF portal. Notably, there is no charge for filing a claim with IEPFA, and more importantly, there is no time limit for claiming the amount that has been transferred to the Fund.
