Transfer to the Unpaid Dividend Account (7 days after 30)
The duty to move dividend that is still unpaid or unclaimed thirty days after declaration into a special Unpaid Dividend Account.
Seven days after the thirty days expire
Counted from declaration of the dividend, where it remains unpaid or unclaimed for thirty days from that declaration
- MCA
- MCA event filings
- Not specified
- 2026-09-01
The transfer is due within 7 days of the thirty days from declaration expiring, so day 37 from the date of declaration. The clock has two legs and both matter: the dividend must first go unpaid or unclaimed for thirty days from declaration, and then the company has seven days to move the total unpaid amount into a special account called the Unpaid Dividend Account, opened with a scheduled bank.
Deadlines counted from an event
Within 7 days of the expiry of thirty days from the date of declaration, which is day 37 from declaration, under section 124(1). The dividend must first have gone unpaid or unclaimed for those thirty days.
The rule
Within 7 days of the expiry of thirty days from the date of declaration, which is day 37 from declaration, under section 124(1). The dividend must first have gone unpaid or unclaimed for those thirty days.
Who must comply
- Every company that declared a dividend which remains unpaid or unclaimed thirty days after declaration, in respect of any shareholder entitled to it
Statutory basis
Before you file
- Identify the dividend that is still unpaid or unclaimed at the end of thirty days from declaration.
- Work out the total unpaid or unclaimed amount.
- Open a special account with a scheduled bank called the Unpaid Dividend Account.
- Record the date on which the thirty days expired. This date starts the 7-day window.
How to file
- Wait until thirty days from the date of declaration have passed.
- Total the dividend that remains unpaid or unclaimed.
- Transfer that total to the Unpaid Dividend Account within 7 days.
- Prepare the statement of unpaid dividend for the website within 90 days of that transfer.
- Track the seven-year clock on the money in the account, which runs from the date of this transfer.
The Unpaid Dividend Account with a scheduled bank
If you miss it
Section 124(7) sets one penalty for any failure under section 124: ₹1 lakh on the company plus ₹500 for each day the failure continues, capped at ₹10 lakh, and ₹25,000 on every officer in default plus ₹100 a day, capped at ₹2 lakh. Section 124(3) adds a separate cost that goes to the members rather than to the exchequer: interest at 12 per cent a year on the amount not transferred, running from the date of the default, and that interest goes to the members in proportion to the amounts still unpaid to them.
- Section 124(3) interest runs at 12 per cent a year from the date of default and accrues for the benefit of the members, so the cost is owed to shareholders as well as under the penalty
- The seven-year clock for transfer to the IEPF runs from the date of the section 124(1) transfer, so a late transfer moves the later IEPF deadline as well
Recent changes affecting this
Common questions
Is the deadline 7 days or 37 days from declaration?
Both describe the same date. Section 124(1) gives seven days from the expiry of thirty days from declaration, which lands on day 37 from the declaration.
What does a late transfer cost?
The section 124(7) penalty, and separately 12 per cent a year interest under section 124(3) on the amount not transferred, which goes to the members in proportion to what is unpaid to them.