MSME Form 1, Due 31 October 2026: Who Files, What the 2024 Form Asks, and Why Its 45 Days Isn't the Law's

Every half-year, a company's accounts team sorts its supplier ledger into a quiet little list: the micro and small businesses it has kept waiting.

That list is MSME Form I. For the six months from April to September 2026, it is due on 31 October 2026. Since July 2024 it has asked a sharper question than it used to, and it has one feature that catches out even careful filers. Its 45 days is not the law's deadline.

Who has to file

The Specified Companies Order of 22 January 2019, made under section 405 of the Companies Act, 2013, covers every company that gets supplies from micro or small enterprises and whose payments to them exceed 45 days from acceptance or deemed acceptance. Medium enterprises are not in it.

The amendment of 15 July 2024, S.O. 2751(E), narrowed who files. Only companies "having payments pending to any micro or small enterprises for more than 45 days" furnish the form. The Ministry's own MCA21 account has put the consequence plainly: filing is not required where there are no such dues, and nil returns are not applicable.

The two half-years run to fixed dates:

• April to September: due 31 October;
• October to March: due 30 April.

What the form now asks

The 2024 form replaced the old narrative return with a table, supplier by supplier, identified by PAN. For each supplier it asks the number and amount of dues in four columns:

• paid within 45 days, split between payments through TReDS and other modes;
• paid after 45 days;
• outstanding for 45 days or less;
• outstanding for more than 45 days;

and then the reason for the delay. A note on the form asks for dues that were outstanding for more than 45 days or were paid after 45 days. So a delay cleared before 30 September still gets reported.

Since 15 July 2024 the form has been a V3 web form. The instruction kit allows up to 1,000 rows, one unique PAN per row, and no resubmission. A second return for the same period is accepted only if the first has been marked defective.

Two clocks, one day

This is the part most worth slowing down for.

The form counts 45 days from acceptance. The Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises Development Act counts differently. Under section 15, the buyer must pay by the date agreed in writing, which can never be more than 45 days from acceptance. Where there is no written agreement, payment is due before the "appointed day", which section 2(b) defines as the day after 15 days from acceptance.

So a supplier with no written terms, paid on day 30, was paid late under the Act. Section 16 charges compound interest from the appointed day at three times the bank rate. On the form, the same payment sits in "paid within 45 days".

That gap reaches the tax return. Section 43B(h) of the 1961 Act, and section 37(2)(g) of the Income-tax Act, 2025 from tax year 2026-27, tie the deduction to payment within the section 15 time limit, the Act's clock and not the form's. A clean MSME Form I doesn't prove that the section 43B(h) position is clean.

Sort your half-year

Traders, and the question of who counts

Section 15 protects a "supplier", which section 2(n) defines as a micro or small enterprise that has filed its memorandum, together with a few named corporations. Since July 2021, retail and wholesale traders can register on Udyam, but the Ministry's Office Memorandum of 2 July 2021 restricts their benefits to priority sector lending only. Read together, they point to traders' dues falling outside the delayed-payment rules, but no document says so in terms for MSME Form I, so the category on each supplier's Udyam certificate is worth checking before a row goes in.

What late or missing filing costs

Since the Companies (Amendment) Act, 2020, section 405(4) is a civil penalty, not a prosecution. Failing to comply, or furnishing information that is incorrect or incomplete in a material respect, costs ₹20,000 for the company and for every officer in default, plus ₹1,000 a day while the failure continues, up to ₹3 lakh.

Before 31 October

• Pull every micro and small supplier's Udyam category, and set traders aside with a note.
• For each due, record the date of acceptance and the agreed credit period, and flag the ones with nothing in writing.
• Sort April to September into the form's four columns, supplier by supplier, with PANs.
• Check the dues that sit inside 45 days but beyond 15 days with no agreement. They won't trouble the form, but they matter for section 16 interest and for the tax computation.
• If nothing crossed 45 days, keep the working on file. No return is due.

Where this comes from

The Order is S.O. 368(E) of 22 January 2019 as amended by S.O. 2751(E) of 15 July 2024, with the substituted form. The filing mechanics are from MCA's V3 FAQ and instruction kit, and the no-nil-return position is from MCA21's official account. The penalty is section 405(4) of the Companies Act, 2013 as substituted in 2020, and the payment rules are sections 2(b), 15 and 16 of the MSMED Act, 2006. For how the same dues are reported in the accounts and the tax audit, see MSME reporting across Schedule III and Form 26.