How to file a delayed-payment claim on the MSME ODR Portal

If you are searching for MSME Samadhaan, you will find a great deal of guidance telling you to file there. That guidance is out of date. The Ministry of MSME announced on 3 October 2025 that from 15 October 2025, all new delayed-payment cases under the MSMED Act must be filed on the MSME Online Dispute Resolution Portal at odr.msme.gov.in instead.

Samadhaan remains reachable for tracking cases already lodged, but it does not accept new references. This guide covers where a claim goes now, what the law actually entitles you to, and what to have ready before you start.

Who can file

The delayed-payment provisions run to micro and small enterprises only. Medium enterprises are outside them — a distinction a fair amount of published material gets wrong, and one worth checking before you spend time on a filing.

Registration is evidenced by a Udyam number. The date on the certificate matters as much as the number: the registration needs to predate the invoice you are claiming on. If you supplied the goods first and registered afterwards, that is a problem you want to discover now rather than at the Council.

When payment actually became overdue

This is the part most people get wrong, and it is not the invoice date.

Section 15 requires payment within the period agreed in writing, which cannot exceed forty-five days from the day of acceptance. Where nothing is agreed in writing, the period is fifteen days. Section 2(b) then defines the appointed day as the day immediately following the expiry of those fifteen days from acceptance.

So the clock runs from acceptance or deemed acceptance of the goods or services, not from when you raised the invoice, and not from when you chased it. Where a written agreement fixes a longer period, Section 15 reads it down to forty-five days regardless of what the contract says.

What has accrued since

Section 16 provides for compound interest with monthly rests at three times the Bank Rate notified by the Reserve Bank of India. Not simple interest, not on request, and not something the buyer has to agree to — it runs from the appointed day by operation of the section.

Two things follow that are easy to miss. The Bank Rate moves, so a claim running across a rate change has to be computed period by period against the rate in force during each month rather than one rate applied flat across the whole span. And because it compounds monthly, the figure grows faster than a mental estimate suggests.

You can work out what has accrued on a specific invoice without signing up for anything — it computes month by month and shows the rate it used and where that rate came from.

The part that actually moves a buyer

Interest is the visible half. The half that tends to get a finance team's attention sits on their side of the ledger.

A buyer cannot claim the expense as a deduction until the sum is actually paid to a micro or small supplier. That provision was Section 43B(h) of the Income-tax Act 1961 and, from 1 April 2026, is Section 37(2)(g) of the Income-tax Act 2025. The relief that rescues most of Section 43B — paying before the return filing due date — does not extend to this clause.

Which means an unpaid invoice sitting across 31 March costs the buyer the deduction for that year, on top of the interest they already owe. Most buyers have never had this pointed out to them, and most suppliers do not know they can.

Before you file

A reference is stronger for being boring and complete. Have these together:

• Your Udyam Registration Certificate, showing a date before the invoice
• The invoice itself, and proof of what was supplied
• Evidence of acceptance or delivery — this is what starts the clock
• Any written agreement on payment terms, if one exists
• A period-by-period interest computation, showing the rate used for each month
• Your correspondence chasing payment, in date order

It is worth writing to the buyer before making a reference, if only because it often works. A letter that sets out the sections, states the computed figure and cites its source tends to get further than a reminder, and it costs nothing to send.

Where the reference goes

Section 18 provides for a reference to the Micro and Small Enterprises Facilitation Council. Since 15 October 2025 those references are filed at odr.msme.gov.in.

The ODR portal is not simply Samadhaan renamed. Samadhaan, launched in 2017, was principally a complaint registration system. The ODR platform is built to carry the matter through — conciliation and, failing that, arbitration — which is closer to what Section 18 contemplates.

What this guide is not

This sets out what the provisions say. It does not tell you whether you have a claim, what it is worth, or whether filing is the right move in your situation — those are legal questions and depend on facts a guide cannot see. If the amount matters, take advice from an advocate or a chartered accountant before you act.

What you can do without advice is find out what the arithmetic comes to. The calculator is free, needs no account, and shows its working.