Grievance helpline comes to investors' rescue

Saumya Sheth is one among the 1,000-odd investors whose grievances have been resolved by the year-old Investor Helpline. Ahmedabad-based Sheth had logged on to the helpline's online portal after he did not receive dividend payments from Royal Orchids Hotels Ltd. Four months after logging in his complaint, the payments were made by the company.

Over the past one year, since the helpline became functional (on September 8, 2006), a total of 3,110 grievances have been registered. Of these, 1,484 were found valid for redressal, with 956 being taken care off and 528 under process. Another 695 complaints were rejected due to incorrect and incomplete information. Currently, the website has a database of about 3,000 companies, which have changed their names or addresses among other details, allowing investors to keep tabs on them. The Helpline is a free-of-cost initiative for sorting out investor grievances. Investors with grievances against various companies can log on to www.investorhelpline.in, which is maintained and managed by Midas Touch Investors Association, a non-profit organisation working for investor protection. The Helpline has been funded by the Ministry of Corporate Affairs at an annual recurring cost of Rs 30 lakh.

The site has 11 ready-made grievance forms based on different issues such as non-receipt of refund order, dividend, share certificates, units after allotment, bond debentures, fixed deposit-related amounts and returns from plantation companies. Investors have to submit the details of their grievances, after which they are given a unique grievance registration number, with the help of which they can track the status of their grievance subsequently.

Midas Touch Director Virender Jain said, "We follow up with the companies and keep the regulators and authorities apprised about the steps taken for redressal of grievances of investors. If a company is receiving a lot of grievances from investors, then they are taken up collectively with the company and the concerned regulator."

One of the key features of the helpline is that it redresses more types of grievances as compared to the Security and Exchange Board of India, Reserve Bank of India and other regulators. "Many investors, whose complaints were either not addressed or where the investor was not satisfied with the decision of the concerned regulator, filed complaints with us," Jain added.

"Being the first year and with the limited budget, we have not been able to advertise and market the helpline among the investors. But, we will be meeting the Corporate Affairs Minister Prem Chand Gupta and request him to enhance the budget," Jain said.