Short answer: if you run a micro or small business with a valid Udyam registration and a buyer has not paid you within the legal time limit, you can file a delayed payment complaint online, without going to court first, and claim compound interest on top of the unpaid amount. Since 15 October 2025, new complaints are filed on the MSME ODR portal (odr.msme.gov.in), not on the older MSME Samadhaan portal. This guide explains who can file, the documents required, the steps, how to check the status of an old MSME Samadhaan case, and what to realistically expect.
This is general information, not legal advice. For a large claim or a disputed one, talk to a lawyer or your CA before you file.
Many owners still search for “MSME Samadhan” and land on pages that describe the old process. Samadhaan was launched in 2017 as a delayed payment monitoring system: you filed there and the case went to your state’s Micro and Small Enterprises Facilitation Council (MSEFC). The Ministry of MSME then launched the ODR (Online Dispute Resolution) portal in June 2025. According to a Ministry of MSME letter dated 3 October 2025, as reproduced by TaxGuru, from 15 October 2025 all new delayed payment references are filed only on the ODR portal, and Samadhaan stays online only to track and migrate cases filed earlier. Someone who tries to file a new case on Samadhaan is redirected.
If you already have a pending Samadhaan case, you do not need to refile it. You keep tracking it on the Samadhaan portal, as shown in the next section.
Cases filed on MSME Samadhaan before 15 October 2025 continue under the old system, and you check their status on the portal’s Entrepreneur Case Status page (samadhaan.msme.gov.in/MyMsme/MSEFC/MSEFC_Entrepreneur_status.aspx):
The portal groups cases by stage: filed by the MSE, yet to be viewed by the council, under consideration, mutually settled, rejected and disposed. “Yet to be viewed” means your state’s MSEFC has not taken up the application yet. “Disposed” means the council has closed the case, so check your dashboard and registered email for the order.
The MSME Samadhaan login is only for these older cases. There is no new MSME Samadhaan portal registration now: to file a fresh delayed payment complaint, register on the MSME ODR portal as explained below.
| Question | Answer |
| Micro or small enterprise with valid Udyam registration? | Yes, this is the basic requirement. Sole proprietorships, partnerships, LLPs and companies can all qualify if they are micro or small. |
| Medium enterprise? | The delayed payment provisions of the MSMED Act protect micro and small suppliers. A medium business would normally need a civil suit or ordinary arbitration. A 2026 amendment bill is pending in Parliament but has not been passed, so do not count on it. |
| Trader? | No. Retail and wholesale traders can register on Udyam, but the Ministry of MSME’s Office Memoranda of 2 July 2021 and 1 September 2021 limit their benefit to priority sector lending. They cannot use the delayed payment provisions, and the official Samadhaan FAQ lists trading units as not admitted. |
| Udyam registered after the sale? | Not for earlier supplies. The Supreme Court held in Silpi Industries v. Kerala SRTC (2021) that the supplier must be registered before the contract or supply. Registering later does not give you rights over earlier sales. |
Section 15 of the MSMED Act, 2006 sets the clock. If you and the buyer agreed a payment date in writing, payment is due on that date. If there is no written agreement, payment is due within 15 days of the buyer accepting the goods or services. Even with an agreement, the period cannot exceed 45 days from acceptance. A 90-day credit clause in a purchase order does not override this.
Under Section 16, a buyer who misses the deadline owes compound interest, with monthly rests, at three times the bank rate notified by the RBI. The RBI raised the Bank Rate to 5.75% in its 7 October 2026 policy, so the interest rate is currently 17.25% a year. The Bank Rate moves with RBI policy, so use the rate in force for each month of delay when you work out your claim.
As an illustration, on an unpaid ₹1,00,000 at 17.25% compounded monthly, three months of delay adds about ₹4,375 and twelve months about ₹18,681.
The official Samadhaan FAQ, which the ODR filing follows, says a work order or purchase order is required, and several invoices can be combined into one PDF.
This is where many small suppliers get stuck. A buyer is in a hurry, promises to complete vendor registration later, and takes delivery on a phone call or a WhatsApp message. Months later the payment is held, and the buyer says there was no PO, so there was no order. The Act does not say a purchase order is mandatory. What the claim needs is proof of three things: that you supplied the goods or services, that the buyer accepted them, and on what date. A PO is only the easiest way to show that. The official Samadhaan FAQ answers this directly: a work order is required, and if the order was oral, you file an affidavit saying so. The same FAQ says a purchase or work order is not the only evidence the council accepts, and lists acknowledgements on invoices, delivery challans, part payments and emails as acceptable. So without a PO, file the affidavit and back it with as much of this evidence as you can.
Evidence that can stand in for a PO:
The Act also has a rule on acceptance. Under Section 2(b) of the Act, if the buyer does not object in writing within 15 days of delivery, the day of delivery is treated as the day of acceptance. That is another reason to send a written demand, and to keep the date of delivery clear on your invoice and challan. A buyer who raises an objection will say the goods were not as ordered, which your documents must answer.
Be realistic. A claim backed only by your own invoice is weak, and the buyer can deny the supply or the terms, which turns a payment case into a dispute about facts. That slows things down and may need a lawyer. Also remember the Udyam registration rule above: the supply must come after your registration date, whatever the paperwork.
To avoid this next time, even when a buyer is in a hurry, get a one-line email or message before dispatch with the item, quantity, rate and payment term, and a signed delivery copy of the challan. Send the invoice the same day. These cost nothing and are often the difference between a clean claim and a disputed one. A proper tax invoice is easy to produce with our free GST invoice generator.
According to the Ministry’s description of the system, there are three stages:
The law expects the council to decide a reference within 90 days. A buyer who wants to challenge the award in court must first deposit 75% of the awarded amount (Section 19), and the award can be enforced like a court decree if the buyer still does not pay.
There is no government filing fee for a delayed payment reference. A YourStory report says some businesses spent under ₹1,000 to file. If the case goes to an outside arbitral institution, that institution charges its own fees, and so does a lawyer if you hire one.
There are good examples. The Ministry’s press release describes a Mumbai engineering firm that recovered ₹21.06 lakh and a Kolkata chemicals firm that recovered about ₹5 lakh from a public sector buyer. But the system is new and results vary. YourStory reports that in Telangana more than 800 cases had been filed by August 2026 and about 85 had been resolved, with slow conciliation when the buyer contests the claim. Treat it as a cheaper and more structured route than court, not a guaranteed quick one.
Income tax law also gives your buyer a reason to pay. Under Section 43B(h) of the Income-tax Act, 1961, which corresponds to Section 37(2)(g) of the Income-tax Act, 2025 from the 2026-27 tax year, a buyer who pays a micro or small supplier after the 15 or 45 day limit can claim the expense only in the year the payment is actually made. A buyer still holding your unpaid bill at the year end loses the deduction for that year, which is a useful point to make in a demand letter.
For the future, the Samadhaan page also asks MSMEs to onboard on a TReDS platform (RXIL, M1xchange or Invoicemart), where invoices can be financed before the buyer pays. If cash flow is tight while you wait for a payment, our guide to applying for a Mudra loan and our tips on saving money as a business owner may help.
Sources: Ministry of MSME Samadhaan portal page; PIB release of 24 July 2026 on the national ODR framework; MSMED Act, 2006 summary on dcmsme.gov.in; TaxGuru’s reproduction of the Ministry letter dated 3 October 2025; YourStory (September 2026); Aran Law and Sansa Legal guides. Also the RBI Monetary Policy Statement of 7 October 2026; Ministry of MSME Office Memoranda dated 2 July 2021 and 1 September 2021; the official Samadhaan FAQ; and the Ministry of Finance’s Rajya Sabha reply of 21 July 2026 on Section 43B(h). Updated October 2026.
