A customer owes our MSME ₹18 lakh for seven months and keeps delaying. What are our legal options: MSME Samadhaan, IBC, or the 45-day rule?

Interest: under section 15 of the MSMED Act a buyer must pay a micro or small supplier within the agreed period, which cannot exceed 45 days from acceptance of the goods. From day 46, section 16 imposes compound interest, monthly, at three times the RBI bank rate, and section 23 bars the buyer from deducting that interest for income tax. Put the interest on your next statement of account; most buyers start moving once it appears.

The tax lever: section 43B(h) of the Income-tax Act denies the buyer a deduction for any amount payable to a micro or small enterprise that is not paid within the section 15 period. An invoice from February 2026 unpaid at 31 March 2026 was disallowed in the customer's FY 2025-26 computation and is allowed only in the year of payment. A short letter to their finance head, copying their auditor, pointing this out tends to be the most effective step of all.

Samadhaan: file a claim on the MSME Samadhaan portal; it goes to the state Micro and Small Enterprises Facilitation Council, which first attempts conciliation and then arbitrates. Decisions typically come within a few months and are enforceable as an arbitral award; the buyer must deposit 75% of the award to appeal.

IBC: the threshold for an operational creditor to initiate insolvency is ₹1 crore, so it is out of reach for ₹18 lakh. A summary suit under Order 37 CPC on the invoices is the court route if the Council does not resolve it.