Before a legal notice, before MSME Samadhaan, before any of it — the GST portal has a free, built-in way to put a payment-overdue notice directly in front of a defaulting buyer, tied to their own GSTIN.
1. What this feature actually is
The GST portal includes a module called Communication Between Taxpayers, built for suppliers and recipients to exchange document-related queries directly through the department's own system. It costs nothing, needs no advocate, and creates a dated record against the buyer's GSTIN on a government portal — a different order of seriousness from a private email or WhatsApp message a buyer can simply ignore or deny receiving.
2. Where to find it and how to open a notification
On the GST portal, go to Services → User Services → Communication Between Taxpayers, then open the Compose tab (the "+" icon) and select Recipient in the Notification field. Enter the buyer's GSTIN — their trade name and legal name auto-populate from GST records the moment you do, so there's no risk of misaddressing the notice.
3. What the form actually asks for
The subject line is capped at 50 characters — "Payment overdue, please make the payment" fits comfortably. Below it, a document table asks for: Action Required (select "Payment Not Received"), Document Type (Invoice, Debit Note, etc.), Document Number, Document Date, Document Value, Place of Supply, and Invoice Type (Regular or Deemed Export). Tick Reverse Charge Mechanism only where it genuinely applies. A free-text Remarks field holds whatever the 50-character subject couldn't — how many days overdue, or that statutory interest will be added if it isn't cleared.
Have these ready before you start
- Buyer's GSTIN
- Invoice number, date, and value
- Place of supply
- Whether the invoice falls under reverse charge
4. Why it applies real pressure without a lawyer
Once sent, the notification doesn't just sit in the buyer's inbox — it's flagged against their own GSTIN inside their own GST portal account, visible the same way their tax filings are. A buyer who might ignore a call or a WhatsApp message tends to take a document carrying their tax registration number more seriously; it reads as a departmental record, not a one-off complaint.
5. What it is not
This is not a legal notice and starts no statutory clock — it carries none of the weight of a Section 138 cheque-bounce demand notice (30-day window) or an NCLT Section 9 Form 3 notice (10-day window). Sending it doesn't create a court-enforceable right on its own, and a buyer who ignores it faces no formal legal consequence from the GST notification alone.
6. Where it fits in a recovery sequence
Used first, before a formal legal notice, it costs nothing, takes minutes, and often resolves smaller or embarrassment-sensitive delays without escalation. If it's ignored, that's the point to move to a proper legal notice — and, depending on whether a cheque bounced, whether you're a registered MSME, or whether the debtor is a company with a large enough default, to the specific route (Section 138, Section 16 MSME Samadhaan, or NCLT Section 9) that actually applies to your case.