MSME Samadhaan to ODR Portal: How to File a Payment Claim

If you searched for "MSME Samadhaan", the process has moved. The Ministry of MSME's online dispute resolution portal went live on 27 June 2025, and from 15 October 2025 every new delayed-payment claim must be filed there. MSME Samadhaan, launched in 2017, now only carries older cases across to the new system.

The good news for a supplier waiting on money is that the new portal handles the whole claim online — filing, negotiation, conciliation and, if needed, arbitration — without a court.

Can you use it?

You can file if all of these are true:

• You are a micro or small enterprise. Medium enterprises are outside the delayed-payment provisions of the MSMED Act, 2006.
• You have a Udyam Registration Number. The portal verifies your enterprise through it. Registration should pre-date the supply you are claiming for; registering later generally does not bring earlier supplies within the Act.
• You supplied goods or services and the buyer is late. Under Section 15, the buyer must pay by the agreed date, which cannot be more than 45 days after acceptance, or within 15 days of acceptance if nothing was agreed in writing.
• You are a manufacturer or service provider. Businesses registered only as traders for priority-sector lending should check eligibility before filing.

What you can claim

The unpaid principal plus statutory interest. Section 16 makes the buyer liable for compound interest with monthly rests at three times the RBI bank rate from the day payment fell due — often a large sum on an old invoice, and one that keeps growing while the buyer delays.

Documents to keep ready

• Udyam Registration certificate
• Purchase orders, work orders or the written agreement, if any
• Invoices (the portal lets you add several invoices in one claim)
• Proof of delivery or completion, and of the buyer's acceptance
• Emails, messages or ledger statements showing the dues and any part-payments

Filing step by step

1. Register as a seller on odr.msme.gov.in and verify with your Udyam number and the OTP sent to the mobile number and email linked to it.
2. Add the buyer's details — legal name, address, and GSTIN or PAN where available.
3. Enter each unpaid invoice with its date, amount, date of acceptance and payments received.
4. Upload your documents and check the interest the portal calculates.
5. Submit. You get an e-filing number to track the claim.
6. Online negotiation or conciliation. The claim first moves through a pre-Council stage where the buyer is invited to settle, often with an online ADR institution.
7. MSEFC stage. If it does not settle, the claim goes to the Micro and Small Enterprises Facilitation Council of your state, which conciliates and, if that fails, arbitrates.

A settlement at the conciliation stage has the status of an arbitral award on agreed terms (Section 74, Arbitration and Conciliation Act, 1996), and an MSEFC award is enforceable like a court decree (Section 36 of that Act).

Mistakes that cost suppliers money

• Waiting too long. The Supreme Court has held that the Limitation Act, 1963 applies to MSEFC arbitration (Silpi Industries v. Kerala SRTC, 2021), so an old invoice can become time-barred. A written acknowledgement of the debt by the buyer can extend time.
• Claiming only the principal. Interest under Section 16 is a statutory right; include it.
• Thin paperwork. Most claims turn on proof of delivery and acceptance. Upload everything.
• Filing as the wrong entity. The claimant must be the registered micro or small unit that made the supply.

Where this fits

The portal suits undisputed or lightly disputed invoices. If the buyer raises a serious quality dispute or counter-claim, or the amount is large, it is worth a preliminary case assessment before filing so the claim, interest and documents are framed correctly. The MSME payment recovery page explains the wider route, and the money recovery guide covers options when you are not an MSME supplier.