Details of unpaid/ unclaimed dividend

MCA has come out with a notification dated 10th May 2012 here that every company shall within a period of 90 days after holding the annual general meeting file on the mca portal an e-form 5INV which shall give details of all the unpaid/ unclaimed dividends until the completion of the relevant 7 year period. The details shall be names & last known addresses of the shareholders, nature of amount (i.e. dividend, debenture, fixed deposit, interest etc), amount of unclaimed dividend, due date of transfer to IEPF etc. A proviso has been added that information for the year ended 31st March 2011 to be filed by 31st July 2012. On the basis of this information at the mca portal, shareholders can find out how much, if any, of their dividends they have not claimed and thereafter make application to the companies to claim that amount. Obviously it would apply only upto 7 years from the date of transfer to unclaimed account, after which it needs to be transferred to the IEPF.