Procedure to File Form MSME I

Form MSME I is required to be filed pursuant to notification from Ministry of Corporate Affairs dated 22 January, 2019 issued under Section 405 of the Companies Act, 2013. Accordingly, all companies, who get supplies of goods or services from micro and small enterprises and whose payments dues to such micro and small enterprise suppliers exceed forty-five days from the date of acceptance or the date of deemed acceptance of the goods or services as per the provisions of section 9 of the Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises Development Act, 2006, shall submit a return to the Ministry of Corporate Affairs in Form MSME.

Key points of Form MSME-I

1. It applies to dues to only Micro or Small Enterprises and not Medium.

2. The dues shall be accrued for more than 45 days and accordingly, the reporting has to be made for amount of payment due and reasons for such delay. In case there all payments due to micro or small enterprises are made before 45 days period, then Form is not required to be filed.

3. Nil return is not compulsory.

4. Re-reimbursement of expenses not covered under MSME.

5. Companies shall take confirmation/declaration from suppliers whether they fall under MSME or not.

6. The Form is required to be signed by the Management of the Company only.

STEP BY STEP PROCEDURE TO FILE FORM MSME I:

1. Once you have downloaded the form from the MCA portal, open the form and select whether the filing is being done for initial return or for regular half yearly return.

Notes: For the time being, form shall be filed for Initial return only and in case regular half yearly return has been selected, further select the period for which such form is being filed i.e either April to September or October to March.

2. Once purpose of the form is selected, enter CIN of the Company and click on the prefill button.

3. Once clicked on pre-fill button, the system shall automatically display the name, address of registered office, email ID of the Company. However, you can edit the e-mail ID of the Company and enter a revised one.

4. Enter the total outstanding amounts due as on date of notification of this order i.e 22^nd January, 2019.

However, note that the Form has been deployed by MCA on a later date, but still as the form requires the details of the outstanding amount due as on notification date is required to be entered. Accordingly, amount outstanding as on 22^nd January, 2019 has to be entered till any further clarification/amendment/notification is received from the MCA.

5. After entering the outstanding amount, enter the number of entries i.e number of suppliers whose amount is due including other details such as name, PAN, amount due towards supplier, financial year from and to which such amount relates.

Note:

• Number of entries shall be as per number of invoices and not entity wise.
• Maximum number of entries per form is 99 only and if a Company has more entry, then multiple forms MSME is required to be filed.

6. It is mandatory to state the reason for the delay in making the payments due to the supplier.

7. There are no mandatory attachments required in case of filing of Form MSME I. However it is recommended to attach any proof of amount due to such supplier such as invoice or cash memo supporting the information filed in the form and to further avoid any kind of discrepancy.

8. Enter the designation (Director, Manager, Company Secretary, CEO, CFO) of the person digitally signing the form and enter DIN/PAN accordingly.

9. Click on Check Form. Affix digital signature and then click on pre-scrunity.

10. Once the Form is pre-scrutinised, file the same on MCA portal.

{The author  i.e. Kajal Goyal is a Company Secretary in Practice at Kajal Goyal and Associates and can be reached at (M) 9999952595 and (E) cskajalgoyal@gmail.com}