Governments

Name based search: Key to unlocking unclaimed assets

Governments, IEPF / By /

₹1.96 lakh crore is lying unclaimed—could some of it be yours?
That’s the scale of forgotten wealth—bank deposits, insurance, EPF, mutual funds, and shares—scattered across India’s financial system (source: https://bit.ly/42RA5kI). Most heirs don’t even know what to claim, because Indian systems (except IEPF, to a very limited extent) don’t allow a simple name-based search. The true scale of the problem remains hidden. As more people become aware of this, public pressure will grow to fix the broken claim processes. A proposed Central Unclaimed Property Authority (CUPA) could finally enable name-based search—something existing regulators have been psychologically resistant to—and reveal the true extent of the unclaimed property issue.

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Reform inefficient succession processes

Governments, Press, Succession / By /

India’s succession process is broken. Most of us have faced issues in dealing with transfer of assets of a deceased investor. Succession remains an obstacle course across all asset classes with real estate and agricultural land being the worst even in cases where there are no disputes. SEBI’s recent circular categorically stating that the MFs or Depositories can only ask for death certificate and KYC documents from the nominees apart from the standardised transmission form (and nothing else) should do much to ease the process of succession in the securities market. The government has a great opportunity to take the ease of living index up many notches by ensuring changes in laws and procedures that will make the succession process easier across the financial sector and possibly even the real estate sector. It requires no budgetary support just the will to act. Will we see action on this front soon?

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IT department´s stock and flow problem

Governments, Press, Taxes / By /

Lakhs of tax payers receive notices from the Income tax dept. regarding their expenses or investments being disproportionate to their taxable income for the same year – implying that the expenses or investments are from unaccounted sources. Most cases have simple explanations – the income was declared in a previous year or it is exempt income – facts already available in the tax dept database. Yet lakhs of tax payers have to duel with the tax authorities to prove their credentials. Most people emerge victorious after a long and arduous ordeal costing time and money. The tax department resources are used up in dealing with the honest tax payers & the tax evaders may escape. Harsh’s article in Business Standard on why the tax departments Data Analysis Package can cross tally more information and thus have more pointed search results more likely to net tax evaders while being bothersome for fewer honest tax payers.

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