IEPF forces Peerless General Finance to cough up deposits worth Rs 1,500 cr

IEPF forces Peerless General Finance to cough up deposits worth Rs 1,500 cr

PW Bureau

The majority of these investors were common citizens belonging to the lower and middle-income group, including daily wage earners, among others

New Delhi: The Investor Education and Protection Fund (IEPF) Authority has successfully forced The Peerless General Finance and Investment Company Ltd to transfer deposits worth a whopping Rs 1,514 crores to the IEPF. An official statement said, "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."

Firm issued 1.49 crore deposit certificates to 1 crore investors

"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 percent 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 official release said.

'Majority of investors were middle-class, daily wage earners'

"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.

An online tracking facility

The news comes as the IEPF is in the process of commissioning an online facility to collect information from retail investors about deposits that have matured but are pending with various entities for repayment or payment of interest. The online report aims to 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 statement said.

The size of the IEPF fund has almost doubled within one year, with various errant companies transferring Rs 65.02 crore deposits valuing Rs 21,232.15 crore. It has an accumulated corpus of about Rs 4,138 crore.

logo
PSU Watch
psuwatch.com