FP Reporter | Feb – Mar 2014 | Financial Planning Journal (FPSB)
In yet another notification, the RBI issued the operational guidelines for the Depositor Education and Awareness Fund Scheme, 2014. Under the provisions of the scheme the amount to the credit of any account in India with any bank which has not been operated upon for a period of 10 years or any deposit or any amount remained unclaimed for more than ten years shall be credited to the fund, within a period of three months from the expiry of the said period of ten years. RBI would utilize the fund for promotion of depositors’ interest and for any such purposes that may be necessary for the promotion of depositors’ interest.
However, the depositor are entitled to claim from their banks their deposit amount or any other unclaimed amount or operate their account even after the expiry of ten years, and even after such amount has been transferred to the Fund. The banks are liable to pay the amount to the depositors/claimants and can claim refund of such amount from the fund.
As per the recent notification, Banks will calculate balances in accounts (inoperative accounts and balances remaining unclaimed for 10 years) along with accrued interest a day prior to effective date i.e. May 23, 2014. Thereafter they will transfer such amounts to Depositor Education and Awareness Fund on June 30, 2014. Subsequently banks will transfer the amounts becoming due in each calendar month and interest on the last working day of subsequent month.
On the date of transferring the amount to the fund, the bank are required to maintain customer-wise details verified by the auditors, including payment of up-to-date interest accrued, that has been credited to the deposit account till the date of transfer to the Fund.