The Investor Education and Protection Fund (IEPF) Authority has been able to force The Peerless General Finance and Investment Company Ltd to transfer deposits worth about Rs 1,514 crore to the IEPF.

“This depositor’s money was pending with the company for the last 15 years. 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,” an official statement said.

“This amount was taken by the company by issuing about 1.49 crore Deposit Certificates to more than 1 crore individual investors. The data submitted by the company reveals that 50.77 per cent of the total amount was taken in the form of deposit certificates worth Rs 2,000 or less. Number wise, such certificates form 85.32 per cent of the total number of certificates issued,” the statement said.

“The majority of these investors are common citizens belonging to the lower and middle income group, including daily wage earners, among others. Geographically, the investors belong to 30 states and Union Territories. The majority of investors belong to West Bengal,” the statement added.

The IEPF Authority is in the process of commissioning an online facility to collect primary information directly from retail investors about deposits that have matured and are still pending with various entities for repayment or payment of interest. The online report will capture only essential fields, with various drop-down options. The Authority may take various steps to make all such companies and other entities comply with provisions of the Companies Act or other allied related legal provisions.

The size of the IEPF Fund has almost doubled within one year, with an accumulated corpus of about Rs 4,138 crore. Errant companies have also transferred about Rs 65.02 crore deposits valuing Rs 21,232.15 crore.

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