Unclaimed shares, Modaraba certificates: filing of annual returns to be made mandatory

The Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) will make it mandatory for companies to file annual returns of all unclaimed shares, Modaraba certificates, instruments or dividends to the commission.The SECP has issued draft unclaimed shares, Modaraba certificate s, dividend and other instruments Regulation 2017 through SRO 473(1)/2017 issued here on Friday.
These regulations may be called the unclaimed shares, Modaraba certificates, dividend and other instruments Regulation, 2017.Instruments or amounts.- (1) The instruments including Term Finance Certificate (TFC) and Sukuks or amounts, which remain unclaimed or unpaid for a period of three years from the date it is due and payable shall be considered as unclaimed instruments under clause (iii) of sub-section (1) of section 244 of the Act.
The SECP said that the profit or any amount due on the abovementioned instruments, if remained unclaimed or unpaid for the period of three years from the date of maturity of such Instrument shall also be included.After the expiry of notice period, the company shall publish final notice to the shareholders or certificate holders or the owners, as the case may be, to file claim, in two daily newspapers of which one will be in Urdu and one in English have wide circulation, on the Form A.
The SECP said that where no claim is made before the company by the shareholder, certificate holder or the owner, as the case may be, the company after ninety days from the date of publication of notice under regulation 4 shall deposit any unclaimed or unpaid amount to the credit of the Federal Government in the Account and within seven days of such deposit, provide to the Commission, copies of the relevant records along with the report on form B in respect of amount of unclaimed dividend credited to account.
The amount shall be tendered in any branch of the Bank along with Challan (four copies). The Bank will return two copies duly stamped to the depositor as token of having received the amount and forward the third copy of the challan to the Commission.Delivery of unclaimed shares or Modaraba certificates or other instruments: The company within seven days of completion of notice period, shall deliver unclaimed shares or Modaraba certificates or other instruments, to the Commission, along with the report on Form C providing all the relevant details of such shareholders, certificate holders and other instruments as required under clause (b) of sub-section (2) of section 244 of the Act.
The company shall also inform the Central depository Company (CDC) about the shares to transfer the shares in favor of the Commission and for physical shares to convert the share certificates into form and transfer in favor of the Commission.Any unclaimed share, Modaraba certificates, dividend and other instrument, delivered to the Commission shall be sold by the commission. In case the unclaimed shares, Modaraba certificates and other instruments delivered to the Commission are listed they shall be transferred in the Central Depository Company (CDC) account opened in the name of the Commission in demat form and the Commission shall sell those unclaimed shares, Modaraba certificates, dividend and other instruments within 3 days after transfer in CDC account.
In case of unlisted shares and other instruments, the Commission shall dispose of unclaimed shares and other instruments through a tender process and the Commission may use break-up value of the share for reference while accepting or rejecting the highest bid received in the tender process.The Commission shall deposit the proceeds of the sale to the Account after deducting expense incurred on the sale of that particular unclaimed share or Modaraba certificates and other instrument.
Any person claiming to be entitled to any money credited to the account, may apply to the Commission on a form D along with such documents as provided in the said Form.The Commission after verification of claim from the company concerned forward to the Bank, to make the payment to entitled person of the sum equivalent to his unclaimed or unpaid dividend or amount of proceeds.
Filling of annual return of all unclaimed shares, Modaraba certificates, the instruments or dividend:.- Every company shall within a period of thirty days of the close of each financial year, submit to the Commission the year-wise return of unclaimed shares, Modaraba certificates, dividend and other instruments in its books of accounts on Form E along with the auditor certificate authenticating the year-wise amount of shares, Modaraba certificates, the instruments or dividend. The company shall also upload it on its own website, a searchable claimant wise statement having year-wise break-up of unclaimed shares, Modaraba certificates, dividends and other instruments containing following information, namely:- The names and last known address of the persons entitled to receive the sum; nature of amount; amount to which each person is entitled; due date for transfer into the investor education and protection fund and such other information as may be considered relevant by the commission for this purposes, the SECP added.