The MSME 45-Day Payment Rule and Samadhaan: How to Recover Delayed Payments

The work shipped weeks ago. The invoice went out on time. And the client has gone quiet — again. If you run a service business in India, you know this script by heart: the polite follow-ups, the "payment is in process" replies, and the quiet stress of paying salaries while your own money sits in someone else's account.

What the MSME 45-day payment rule actually says

The MSMED Act 2006 generally requires buyers to pay registered MSMEs within the period agreed between you and the client — and that agreed period is capped at 45 days. The cap generally applies even if your client's standard terms say 60 or 90 days.

Two things matter here. First, the word registered: these protections are generally tied to being a registered MSME, so Udyam registration is the entry ticket. If you haven't registered, that's the first fix, and it costs you nothing but an afternoon.

Second, delay has a price. Under the same Act, delayed payments to registered MSMEs generally accrue compound interest at three times the bank rate notified by the RBI. On a pending ₹1,35,000, that meter is not a rounding error — compound interest at that rate adds up in a way that gets a buyer's accounts team's attention.

How these provisions apply to your particular contracts and clients depends on facts only you have — run your situation past a CA or lawyer before you rely on them.

MSME Samadhaan: where delayed-payment claims go

MSME Samadhaan is the government portal where Udyam-registered businesses can file claims for delayed payments. You don't need a lawyer to open the portal, and filing itself is not the hard part.

The hard part is the file. A claim needs documentation: your Udyam registration, the invoices you're claiming against, and proof of delivery or completed work. The portal can't chase money you can't document — the strength of your paperwork is, in practice, the strength of your claim.

Resolution takes time and effort, so treat Samadhaan as the serious step it is — and get a CA or lawyer to look at your file before you submit it.

The playbook before you file — this alone often gets you paid

Don't jump straight to the portal. Work through this sequence first, in writing:

1. Send a written reminder, on email. Cite the invoice number, invoice date, amount, and the agreed due date. WhatsApp follow-ups get forwarded and forgotten; a dated email becomes part of your record.
2. Attach a statement of account. Every invoice raised, every payment received, the balance outstanding. This kills the "we'll check and revert" loop, because there is nothing left to check.
3. Mention the Act and the portal — once, calmly. One line is enough: you're a Udyam-registered MSME, dues to registered MSMEs generally attract compound interest under the MSMED Act 2006, and you'd prefer to settle this directly before considering a claim on MSME Samadhaan.

That third step often unsticks payment. A plain follow-up reads as noise; a written notice naming the Act tends to reach the client's accounts or compliance people, who understand what an interest liability means for their books.

Keep copies of everything you send. If you do end up filing, this trail goes straight into your claim.

Why claims fall apart on paperwork

A claim has to show three simple things: the deal existed, you billed for it, and you delivered. This is exactly where service businesses commonly struggle:

• No written scope or work order. The deal was closed on a call, the terms live across forty WhatsApp messages, and nothing was signed. Electronic contracts are generally recognised under Section 10A of the IT Act 2000 — so even a simple e-signed document counts — but you have to actually have one. A one-page signed scope, built from a service agreement template, beats a hundred chat screenshots.
• Unnumbered or inconsistent invoices. Invoices without serial numbers or dates, or with amounts that don't match the quote, are easy to dispute. A clean, sequential trail in a proper GST invoice format makes your claim boring to verify — which is exactly what you want.
• No proof of delivery or completion. For services this is the killer. No handover email, no client sign-off, no "approved, please raise invoice" message. Get written acceptance for every milestone, even if it's a one-line email.

Trying to recreate these documents after the relationship has soured is close to impossible. The client who isn't paying you is not going to sign your backdated work order.

Keep every deal filing-ready from day one

You don't build a Samadhaan file when payment is 60 days late. You build it without thinking, on day one, by running every deal through the same four steps:

1. A quotation that states scope, price, and payment terms — not a number typed into chat.
2. Written acceptance: an e-signed agreement, or at minimum an email approval of that quotation.
3. A numbered invoice that traces back to the same quote.
4. A dated record of every reminder sent and every part-payment received.

This is the thread DealInSec is built around — quotation, e-signed agreement, invoice, and payment tracking on one deal thread, with a Protection Check that flags risky or missing terms before you send. But the habit matters more than any tool: whatever you use, keep those four documents connected, so that on the day a client goes quiet, your file already exists.

One last note: everything above is general information, not legal advice. Whether the MSMED Act's provisions apply to a specific buyer, contract, or invoice depends on your facts — before you cite the Act in a notice or file on MSME Samadhaan, spend an hour with your CA or a lawyer. It's the cheapest step in the entire process.

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