India Statutory late-payment interest
India Statutory late-payment interest: no single figure applies. The reason is set out below, cited to the governing instrument. Last checked against the official source on 10 Aug 2026.
India fixes no general statutory or late-payment interest rate — court discretion under the Interest Act 1978 and CPC s. 34 — with one scoped exception: MSMED Act s. 16 late payments to micro and small enterprises at three times the RBI Bank Rate, compound monthly.
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| Current value | structured — see the API |
|---|---|
| In force from | — |
| Official source | MSMED Act 2006, s. 16: 'the buyer shall... be liable to pay compound interest with monthly rests to the supplier... at three times of the bank rate notified by the Reserve Bank'; Interest Act 1978 and CPC 1908 s. 34 leave general interest to judicial discretion |
| Last verified | 2026-08-10 |
| Verification | primary — No verification limitation recorded — read from the official source cited. |
| Provenance | source fingerprint |
What this value means
REFUSAL for the general case — the Interest Act 1978 gives courts discretion at 'the current rate', and CPC s. 34 governs post-decree interest (6% ceiling for non-commercial claims, wider latitude for commercial) — no citable fixed rate exists for ordinary civil or commercial late payment. THE SCOPED EXCEPTION IS DERIVABLE: MSMED Act 2006 s. 16 — mandatory, non-waivable compound interest with monthly rests at THREE TIMES the RBI Bank Rate, from the appointed day (payment due within 45 days, s. 15), for registered micro and small enterprise suppliers only. At the RBI Bank Rate of 5.50% (verified on rbi.org.in 10 August 2026; the Bank Rate tracks MSF = policy repo + 25bp) the MSMED rate is 16.50% — NOT the widely-cached 19.5%, which reflects the pre-easing 6.50% Bank Rate. The multiplier is ×3, moving with each MPC decision; the interest is not tax-deductible for the buyer (s. 23). If a scoped MSMED series is wanted later, it derives from the policy-rate series + 25bp × 3.
Get it programmatically
curl https://asiaref.dev/v1/in/statutory-interest
# $0.005 per call — x402 on Base (USDC). No key, no signup.
# History: curl https://asiaref.dev/v1/in/statutory-interest/history?from=2020-01-01
# Provenance: curl https://asiaref.dev/provenance/in/statutory-interestOther India series: RBI policy repo rate · GST standard rate · VAT registration threshold · Minimum wage · Public holidays · CPI inflation (year-on-year) · Corporate income tax rate · Withholding tax rates · Personal income tax bands · Statutory social-insurance contributions
The same figure elsewhere: Indonesia · Iraq · Israel · Japan · Jordan · all 28