GOVT’S SERENDIPITY

FOCUS UNCLAIMED DEPOSITS

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“Apki Punji, Aapka Adhikar, your money/ capital, your right.” This is a laudable statement the Finance Minister made on 4 October while launching the three-month campaign seeking people to take back their money lying unclaimed in various financial institutions like banks, insurance companies, mutual funds, shares and dividends aggregating to Rs 1.84 lakh crore as of 31 August, 2025. She will surely get bigger applause when this money, not only this much, but much bigger, Rs 3.5 lakh crore in about 9.22 crore accounts, is in the hands of its true owners.

Unfortunately, it is unlikely to happen anytime soon, with the method being adopted to achieve the pious goal of being ‘asteya’ (non-stealing) or adhering to a precept, ‘par dhan nav jhaale haathre’ (one should never touch others’ wealth) in Gandhi ji’s most favourite Bhajan, ‘Vaishnava Janato.’ Governments have eyed long back the huge pile of unclaimed or inoperative deposits in financial institutions and somehow wanted to have control over them. To be honest, returning money to whom it belonged was not the honest intention of the government; instead, it proposed to use it for what it considered useful purposes.