Met a supplier at a trade fair? Check them before the first order

Before ordering from a supplier you met at a trade fair, check their GSTIN on the GST portal, confirm their Udyam registration if they claim MSME status, ask for two customer references and a paid sample, and agree payment terms in writing. Approve them in your system before anyone raises a purchase order.

Why does a supplier you met at a stall need checking?

A trade fair is a good place to find suppliers: you handle the product, meet the owner and compare five vendors in an afternoon. But a stall is rented for three days, and a visiting card (or business card) only says who they claim to be.

A good stand proves a marketing budget, not a reliable business.

The first-order mistakes are the same every season:

• The advance goes to the wrong account, in a name that matches nothing else.
• The GSTIN is not active: it was cancelled or suspended months ago.
• The bulk lot is worse than the sample, which was a showpiece made for the stand.
• The credit terms break the law: you agreed 90 days with a small enterprise, but the MSMED Act caps written terms at 45 days.

Only the sample costs money. Allow one to two weeks, mostly waiting for the sample and the references.

Check 1: How do I verify a supplier’s GSTIN on the GST portal?

Anyone can look up a registered business by its GSTIN on the GST portal, without logging in. A GSTIN is 15 characters; the first two digits are the state code. Take it from the quotation, and check it matches the card.

1. Go to www.gst.gov.in and open Search Taxpayer, then Search by GSTIN/UIN.
2. Type the number in GSTIN/UIN of the Taxpayer.
3. Type the characters shown in the image, and press SEARCH.

The steps follow the portal’s Search Taxpayer manual; the field names were checked on the live search page on 10 October 2026.

What the result shows, and what to look for

Field on the result	What to check
Legal Name of Business	Matches the quotation, the invoice and the bank account. If not, ask why.
Trade Name	The brand on the stand. It may differ from the legal name, which is normal.
GSTIN / UIN Status	Must say Active. Cancelled or suspended means stop until it is explained in writing.
Effective Date of registration	A recent date is not wrong, but ask how long they have traded.
Constitution of Business	Proprietorship, partnership, LLP or company: who signs, and who is liable.
Taxpayer Type	Regular or composition. Composition is taxed differently, so ask your CA before agreeing a price plus GST.
Principal Place of Business	Matches the card, in the state given by the GSTIN’s first two digits.
Nature of Business Activities	If they said they make the product, the activities should say so.

Check the filing record

Press SHOW FILING TABLE, choose the Financial Year and press SEARCH to list the returns filed. Show Return Filing Frequency says monthly or quarterly, so a quarterly filer does not look like one with gaps.

Look for returns filed regularly over the last twelve months. Months with nothing filed are a question to put to the supplier before you pay an advance.

If you search while signed in to your own GST login, the manual says you also see the proprietor or directors, annual aggregate turnover, and a GST Compliance Rating from 0 to 10.

Check 2: Is the supplier an MSME, and why does it change your payment deadline?

Many suppliers at Indian trade fairs are micro or small enterprises. For those, the law sets your payment deadline, and paying late costs interest and delays a tax deduction. Find out a supplier’s MSME status before the first order, not when the first bill arrives.

Verify the Udyam number

MSME registration is done on the Udyam Registration portal, which describes itself as the only government portal for it. To check a supplier’s number:

1. Go to udyamregistration.gov.in, open the Print/Verify menu and choose Verify Udyam Registration.
2. Type the number in the format UDYAM-XX-00-0000000, which the portal calls a 19 digit number.
3. Type the Verification Code from the image (it is case sensitive), and press Verify.

Compare the result with the supplier’s Udyam certificate. You need the enterprise’s name, and whether it is micro, small or medium, because the payment rules below protect micro and small only. The portal gives these limits from 1 April 2025:

Category	Investment up to	Turnover up to
Micro	₹2,50,00,000	₹10,00,00,000
Small	₹25,00,00,000	₹1,00,00,00,000
Medium	₹1,25,00,00,000	₹5,00,00,00,000

When must you pay a micro or small supplier?

Section 15 of the Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises Development Act, 2006 (the MSMED Act) says the buyer must pay on or before the date agreed in writing.

Written credit terms with a micro or small supplier can never run beyond 45 days from acceptance.

With nothing agreed in writing, you must pay before the “appointed day”, which section 2(b) sets at the day after 15 days from acceptance. In practice, you have 15 days.

Acceptance is normally the day of delivery. If you object in writing within 15 days of delivery, it is the day the supplier removes your objection.

The Act protects a “supplier”, which section 2(n) defines as a registered micro or small enterprise. Medium enterprises are not covered.

What does paying late cost?

Section 16 makes a late buyer pay compound interest, with monthly rests, at three times the bank rate notified by the Reserve Bank of India. It applies whatever your agreement with the supplier says.

The RBI raised the Bank Rate to 5.75% on 7 October 2026, so three times the bank rate is now 17.25% a year. Section 23 of the MSMED Act adds that this interest is not deductible when your income tax is computed.

The income-tax rule: section 43B(h), now section 37(2)(g)

Late payment also moves your tax deduction. Under section 43B(h) of the Income-tax Act, 1961, a sum payable to a micro or small enterprise beyond the section 15 time limit is deductible only in the year it is actually paid.

The Income-tax Act, 2025 came into force on 1 April 2026. The same rule is now section 37(2)(g), in the section titled “Certain deductions allowed on actual payment basis only”.

Most sums in that section stay deductible in the year incurred if paid by your return due date. Section 37(3) expressly denies that relief to late payments to micro and small enterprises. The 1961 Act did the same.

Check 3: What should I ask a supplier’s references?

Ask for two customers who have bought from the supplier for at least a year. Two references from different cities are better than five from one. A supplier may serve its home market well and ship badly elsewhere.

Phone them, because a call lets you ask the follow-up question. These six cover what matters:

Listen for detail. A real customer remembers a late lot and how it was put right. Praise with no specifics may be a friend doing a favour, so look the reference’s own GSTIN up too.

For a large order, visit the factory or ask for a video call from the shop floor. The stand showed their best product; the factory shows how they make the rest.

Check 4: Should I pay for a sample from a new supplier?

Usually yes. A free sample at a fair is often a showpiece. A paid sample comes from regular production and travels through the supplier’s normal process.

That process is what you are testing: whether the tax invoice carries the GSTIN and legal name the portal showed, how they pack and dispatch, whether the promised lead time holds, and whether the bank account is in the firm’s legal name.

Test it against a written specification, and keep one piece, labelled and dated, as the reference for the bulk order.

Check 5: What terms should be in writing before the first order?

A conversation at a stall is not a contract. Before the first purchase order, put these terms in one email and have the supplier confirm them:

Term	What to write down
Price	Rate per unit, with or without GST, whether freight and packing are included, and how long the price holds
Lead time	Days from purchase order to dispatch, and what happens if they miss it
Quality standard	The specification, tolerances, test reports, and the reference sample
Payment terms	Any advance, and credit days. With a micro or small supplier, no more than 45 days
Acceptance	How long you have to inspect, and that objections are raised in writing
Returns	What happens to rejected goods, who pays the freight, and when a credit note is issued
Bank account	Account name, number and IFSC, in the firm’s legal name

The acceptance line matters: under the MSMED Act, a written objection within 15 days of delivery moves the day of acceptance, and so the payment date.

Treat any later change of bank account as a fraud risk. Confirm a new bank account by phoning a number you already had, never by replying to the email that asked.

Here is a message you can copy and adapt:

How do I make supplier approval a step, not a feeling?

Whoever met the supplier at the stall liked them; that is why they brought the card back. The person who approves a supplier should not be the person who found them.

Make approval a recorded step, against a fixed list:

• GSTIN Active, legal name matches, returns filed regularly
• Udyam verified and the category noted, or “not registered” written down
• PAN collected
• Bank account checked against a cancelled cheque, in the legal name
• Two references phoned, with notes kept
• Paid sample tested against the specification
• Terms confirmed in writing, with no more than 45 credit days for a micro or small supplier

Record who approved and when, so “who cleared this supplier?” takes one click a year later. Then keep one rule without exceptions: nobody raises a purchase order to a supplier until someone has approved them.

How does JAI CRM handle a supplier you met at a fair?

The Exhibitions module files each scanned visiting card as a lead, a customer or a supplier. Choose Supplier on the card, file it, and this happens:

• The firm becomes the supplier and the person its contact. The GST number, phones, emails, website and address fill the supplier’s own fields; services on the card become its Services list.
• A supplier you already have is found by GSTIN, mobile, email or company name, and the card can be filed to them with no new record made.
• A new supplier lands in Prospective vendors, with the status Pool: “Collected but not yet screened. Nothing has been verified.”
• No follow-up task is raised, unlike a lead or a customer. A supplier is checked, not chased.
• The card goes with it. The photograph and the voice note are attached, what was said at the stall is added as a comment, and the supplier is tagged with the exhibition’s name.

From there the supplier moves to Available or Shortlisted, then Approved; it cannot jump from Pool to Approved. A purchase order, purchase bill, debit note or payment against an unapproved supplier is refused, with a message naming their stage.

The supplier’s Tax & banking tab holds the GSTIN, PAN, MSME / Udyam and MSME type, and the bank details, which read “Nobody has checked” until somebody checks them. The overview shows Approved by and Approved on.

One limit, plainly: JAI CRM keeps the Udyam number on the supplier, but does not yet watch the 45-day rule or flag a bill past it. Record the payment terms at approval, and have accounts review micro and small suppliers’ bills by due date.

For the full approval steps, read From a name on a card to a purchase order. For how a card is filed, see From a card to a record.

Common questions

Correct as of October 2026. Portal steps, the MSMED Act, both Income-tax Acts and the RBI Bank Rate were checked on official sources on 10 October 2026. The amounts and dates in the worked examples are illustrative. This is general information, not legal or tax advice: check with your CA.

Next

• The Exhibitions module: scan visiting cards and file suppliers from the stall
• From a name on a card to a purchase order, without skipping the check
• Documentation: from a card to a record
• How to follow up exhibition leads: a 7-day plan