Itr 2 - reporting details of unlisted shares - ay 2019-20

Rammohan (NA) (245 Points)

05 May 2019  

ITR 2 for AY 2019-20 requires us to report full details of unlisted shares, including PAN no. of the companies.

Unlisted shares could arise due to voluntary delisting (after initial listing), due to violation of listing requirements, shares issued arising from demerger from another company with clear indication that the demerged company would be unlisted, companies closing down due to losses/other business problems, companies that issued shares in IPOs but later turned out to be by 'fly by night' operators, etc. In most of these cases, these unlisted companies do not send annual reports or other communications. No information is also available about these companies' activities from stock exchanges/Internet.

In this scenario, how does a person holding unlisted shares, whether in demat mode or not, be able to report the PAN no.of the companies, on the ITR form? Most of these shares are in physical mode and are not worth even the paper the certificates are printed.

Further, why does the Govt. want a complete list of all unlisted shares? Would it not suffice if details of only those unlisted shares that were acquired and/or sold (if one is lucky enough to find a buyer!) during the FY? In any case, sales of unlisted shares have to be reported under Capital Gains on the ITR form.

I feel the Govt. needs to rethink on this item on the ITR form, including the need to report the PAN of the companies, when no details about the company are available from any source.

I request experts to give their suggestions on this subject. Thanks.