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Do you possess a fortune?

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By Ravi Garg

In India, there are unclaimed deposits lying in bank accounts not claimed by anyone. This may happen due to the death of the person or someone who forgot about the bank account after opening it. You will be surprised to know that the amount of unclaimed deposits in the banks is around Rs 35,000 crores.

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has launched a new portal called UDGAM portal (Unclaimed Deposits: Gateway to Access InforMation) which allows people to find out their unclaimed money lying in the bank accounts. With the help of this portal, you can search for unclaimed deposits in saving accounts, current accounts and fixed deposits.

What is an Unclaimed Deposit?

If a bank account is inoperative for past 10 years, the balance available in the bank account is considered as Unclaimed Deposit. This is also applicable to Fixed Deposits and Recurring Deposits that are not claimed within 10 years of maturity.

Where does the money go if an account becomes Unclaimed Deposit?

If a bank account is considered as Unclaimed Deposit, then these bank accounts are credited by banks to ‘Depositor Education and Awareness Fund’. This fund is managed by Reserve Bank of India (RBI).

How many banks are currently available on UDGAM portal to claim Unclaimed Deposits?

At present, 22 banks are available on UDGAM portal for claim of Unclaimed Deposits. List of Bank Account is as follows: Axis Bank Limited; Bank of Baroda; Bank of India; Bank of Maharashtra; Canara Bank; Central Bank of India; DBS Bank India Limited; Dhanlaxmi Bank Limited; Federal Bank Limited; HDFC Bank Limited; ICICI Bank Limited; IDBI Bank Limited; Indian Bank; Indian Overseas Bank; Jammu & Kashmir Bank Limited; Kotak Mahindra Bank Limited; Punjab National Bank; Punjab and Sind Bank; South Indian bank Limited; State Bank of India; UCO Bank; Union Bank of India.

If you have any unclaimed deposit in any of the above bank accounts, then you can claim your unclaimed deposit through UDGAM portal.

What is the procedure to claim Unclaimed Deposits?

RBI has provided a very simple platform and its procedure is very simple which can be easily understood by people. Procedure is as follows:

  1. Visit RBI UDGAM portal. URL is https://udgam.rbi.org.in/unclaimed-deposits.
  2. Register on the portal by providing a valid Mobile number, First name, Middle name, Last name and password.
  3. Once registration is done, Login using your mobile number and password as created in second step.
  4. Enter name of Account Holder, select bank in which deposit is held. You can also select all the bank accounts if you want to search for all the banks. Enter one of the following information to identify the account holder
  5. Permanent Account Number (PAN)
  6. Voter ID
  7. Driving License Number
  8. Passport Number
  9. Date of Birth

If you do not have any one of the above information, then you can simply enter address of the person and search

  1. If the above information matched with any unclaimed deposit then system will provide you with a PDF file which will contain Unclaimed Deposit Reference Number (UDRN).
  2. Visit the bank by taking this UDRN and the bank officials will help you to claim your unclaimed deposit.

(Ravi Garg is an associate Chartered Accountant, who has completed his CA at just the age of 21 years).