Product · Lekha

The 45-day clock every Indian supplier should know

Indian small manufacturers live and die by two piles of paper — bills they owe suppliers and bills buyers owe them — and the second pile runs badly late. The law gives them a right most never track.

A right most suppliers never use

Under the MSMED Act, a buyer must pay a registered micro or small supplier within the period agreed in writing — never more than 45 days from acceptance — or within 15 days where nothing is agreed. Past that, statutory interest runs.

The right exists on paper for almost everyone and is used by almost no one, because tracking it means knowing, for every bill, the date of acceptance, the due date, and the running age. That is a records problem, not a legal one.

Turning the clock into a ledger

Lekha ages each receivable against the 45-day clock — days since acknowledgement, with the overdue ones flagged — so an owner can see which buyers to chase before a small delay becomes a large one.

It tracks bills both ways: supplier purchases captured from the document, and buyer receivables down the purchase-order-to-payment chain. It records and tracks; it does not replace your accountant, and it does not compute your statutory interest — that lives in a separate tool.

Read the rule, then run the clock

If you want the law itself — Section 15, the appointed day, and the interest that runs past it — Lekha's guide walks through it in plain English, and a free calculator turns a due date into a rupee figure.

The clock only helps if something keeps it. That is the whole idea behind Lekha.

Questions

People also ask

    What is the MSME 45-day payment rule?

    Under the MSMED Act, a buyer must pay a registered micro or small supplier within the agreed period — never more than 45 days from acceptance — or within 15 days if nothing is agreed in writing.

    Does Lekha calculate the statutory interest?

    Lekha records and tracks the overdue clock; the interest figure is worked out in a separate free calculator, so the ledger stays a record-and-track tool.