Chief Minister's Scheme for Reimbursement of Interest to MSMEs (CM-SRIM)

What is CM-SRIM?

The Chief Minister's Scheme for Reimbursement of Interest to MSMEs, known as CM-SRIM, is a scheme of the Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises Department, Government of Odisha. Its operational guidelines were notified on 4 November 2023 under notification number MSME-P&B-P&B-0017-2023, in continuation of notification No. 6010 dated 21 August 2023, with the concurrence of the Finance Department.

CM-SRIM addresses a specific problem stated plainly in its own objective clause: finance is one of the biggest concerns of manufacturing MSMEs. Rather than subsidise a term loan or a capital asset, CM-SRIM reimburses the interest a manufacturing MSME has already paid to its bank on a working capital loan, the money a factory borrows to buy raw material, pay wages and hold stock between orders. As notified, the scheme is applicable for FY 2023-24.

That last point needs stating clearly. The guidelines on the MSME Department's site define the benefit, the eligibility and the two claim windows for FY 2023-24 only. The department has not published an extension notification for later years on its policies page, so an enterprise interested in CM-SRIM today should confirm the current position with its District Industries Centre before making plans around it.

How much does CM-SRIM reimburse?

Reimbursement runs on a four-slab scale tied to the sanctioned working capital limit:

Three rules govern how the slab is fixed. Only fund-based working capital loan is counted, and the term working capital includes Export Packing Credit (EPC) availed by export-oriented manufacturing MSMEs. Fitment into a slab is done on the limit sanctioned, not on how much of the limit was used or drawn, so a unit with a Rs 40 lakh cash credit limit that drew Rs 12 lakh still sits in Slab-2. And if the working capital limit or the EPC limit was modified once or more within a six-monthly claim period, the highest limit in that period decides the slab.

There is no ceiling on the rupee amount of reimbursement beyond what the slab percentage produces, but a working capital limit above Rs 3 crore falls outside the table altogether.

Who is eligible for CM-SRIM and who is not eligible?

You can apply if your unit:

• Derives at least 75 percent of its annual turnover for FY 2022-23 from manufacturing activities, which is how the guidelines define a "manufacturing MSME".
• Is located in Odisha.
• Commenced commercial production on or before 31 March 2020.
• Has not gone out of production for a continuous period of six months or more starting from 1 April 2023.
• Has availed a working capital loan from a public sector bank, private sector bank, state cooperative bank, regional rural bank or small finance bank located in Odisha.
• Holds a valid Udyam Registration Number from udyamregistration.gov.in.

The claim is limited to working capital availed from one bank and one loan account only. An enterprise with two cash credit accounts must choose.

You cannot apply if:

• You are an SHG, FPO, State or Central Government company, or a society, trust or cooperative society run or controlled by the state or central government.
• You manufacture alcoholic beverages such as IMFL or country liquor, tobacco products such as pan masala, bidi or cigarettes, Gudakhu, narcotic drugs or psychotropic substances.
• You manufacture any prohibited item or product.
• Your working capital loan account has become an NPA at the bank.
• Your turnover from manufacturing is below 75 percent of total FY 2022-23 turnover, or production started after 31 March 2020, or the unit was shut for six continuous months from 1 April 2023.

One partial-eligibility rule is easy to miss. If the unit has already availed interest reimbursement on working capital, or any similar benefit for FY 2023-24, under another scheme of the state or central government, it is eligible for the differential amount of benefit only, not the full slab amount over again.

How to apply for CM-SRIM

1. Gather the documents; Udyam Registration Certificate, the working capital loan or EPC sanction order, the Chartered Accountant's certificate on annual turnover in the prescribed format, and the Power of Attorney, Board Resolution or Society Resolution supporting the signatory's authority.
2. Fill the CM-SRIM application form (Annexure-A) with your Udyam number, registered office and manufacturing unit addresses, type of organisation, items of manufacture with installed capacity and actual production in 2022-23, the turnover break-up between manufacturing and non-manufacturing activity, and the bank, IFSC and loan account details.
3. State the interest paid separately for the two claim periods — 1 April 2023 to 30 September 2023 and 1 October 2023 to 31 March 2024, and declare whether you availed a similar incentive under any other scheme.
4. Sign the undertaking confirming that the information is correct, that you have read the CM-SRIM guidelines, and that your unit was not closed for more than six months in 2023-24.
5. Submit online in the CM-SRIM Portal through the Proprietor, Managing Partner, Managing Director or authorised signatory, uploading self-attested copies of all documents.
6. Track the application status in the portal. The GM of your District Industries Centre must intimate one of three statuses within 7 working days; rejected with grounds, reverted with grounds, or under further process.
7. If the application is reverted, remove the deficiencies and resubmit within 15 working days.

What happens after you submit?

CM-SRIM has an unusually well-specified processing clock, which is worth knowing because it tells you when to follow up.

Once your application is prima facie in order, the Checking Officer requests the Branch Head of your bank to verify the working capital loan availed and the interest paid; the bank must file its verification report in the portal within 7 working days. If the bank's report shows the unit is not eligible, the application is rejected with grounds recorded.

If the bank's report supports the claim, the Checking Officer makes a field visit to your unit and uploads a field visit report within 15 working days of receiving the bank's report. The GM (DIC) then approves or rejects the claim, wholly or partly, within 7 working days of the field visit report, and issues the sanction in the portal within 3 working days of approval.

Disbursement follows within 7 working days of sanction, and it is credited directly to the working capital loan account of the beneficiary MSME through the IFMS payment gateway system. The money reduces your borrowing; it does not arrive as free cash.

How do I challenge a rejection?

CM-SRIM provides a two-stage remedy, both conducted in the portal.

Review before the GM (DIC). An MSME whose claim is partly or fully rejected may file a review application before the same GM (DIC) within 30 working days of the rejection order. If the review is devoid of merit, the GM rejects it within 7 working days. If it has merit, the GM may make fresh correspondence with the bank branch and order a fresh field visit, and must take a final decision within 30 working days of the review being filed. On approval, the sanction order issues within 3 working days and disbursement follows within 7 working days.

Appeal before the Director of Industries. An MSME whose review has been partly or fully rejected may appeal to the Director of Industries, Odisha within 30 working days. The DI examines all relevant documents, may seek fresh bank correspondence and a fresh field visit, and must decide within 45 working days. Where the appeal succeeds, the GM (DIC) issues the sanction order within 7 working days and disburses within a further 7 working days.

Where a review or appeal is handled in a physical file rather than online, the important documents including up to 10 pages of note sheet must be uploaded to the portal, a transparency requirement worth invoking if you are told a decision was taken "on file".

What if wrong information is given?

Recovery under CM-SRIM is strict. If the information furnished by a beneficiary is found to be false, incorrect, misleading, misrepresented, or if material facts were suppressed or a fraud committed, the amount disbursed is recovered with penal interest at 18 percent a year. Where money was wrongly disbursed because of a bona fide mistake with no mala fide intention by the unit, it is recovered with interest at the rate applicable to the unit's own working capital loan account. In either case, the recoverable amount is realised under the provisions of the OPDR Act unless refunded within one month of the GM (DIC)'s order.

Where do I go for help?

The General Manager of your District Industries Centre is the operative authority for CM-SRIM, checking, sanctioning, disbursing and deciding reviews. The Director of Industries, Odisha is the appellate authority. The MSME Department, Odisha State Secretariat, Sachivalaya Marg, Bhubaneswar 751001 is the administrative department responsible for administering the scheme, and it may spend up to 1 percent of the annual scheme expenditure on administration.

Before doing anything else, confirm with your DIC whether a claim window is currently open. The notified guidelines cover FY 2023-24 with claim deadlines of 31 December 2023 and 30 June 2024, both of which have passed, and no extension notification appears on the MSME Department's published policies list.

How to check your CM-SRIM application status

CM-SRIM does not run on a public helpline or SMS alert system, so the portal itself and your District Industries Centre are the two places to look.

1. Log in to the CM-SRIM Portal with the credentials created at the time of filing, and open the application using the reference number generated on submission. The dashboard shows which of the four processing stages your claim is at: bank verification, field visit, GM (DIC) decision, or sanction and disbursement.
2. Match the stage to the working-day clock. Each stage in CM-SRIM carries a fixed turnaround (bank verification, field visit, decision, sanction and disbursement each have their own working-day limit set out in the guidelines). If the portal has shown no movement well past the limit for the current stage, that is your cue to follow up rather than keep waiting.
3. Call or visit the GM of your District Industries Centre if the portal status has been static for longer than the applicable working-day limit. The GM (DIC) is the sanctioning authority for CM-SRIM and holds the file at every stage except the bank's own verification step, so DIC staff can tell you whether the delay sits with the bank, the field-visit officer, or the GM's own approval queue.
4. Ask your bank branch directly if the status is stuck at the verification stage. Since the bank's report is filed into the portal by the branch itself, a bank that has not yet responded to the department's request is a common, fixable cause of a stalled application, and a phone call to your relationship manager can move it faster than waiting on the department alone.
5. Check for a "reverted" status specifically. A reverted application is not rejected; it means the checking officer found a deficiency and is waiting for you to correct it. The portal notes the grounds for reversion, and you have a defined window to resubmit, so treat a reverted status as an action item, not a rejection.
6. File a written status query with the MSME Department (through the DIC in the first instance) if the portal shows no update at all after a reasonable period from submission. Because CM-SRIM covers a closed financial year with no published extension, a query in writing also creates a paper record useful if you later need to pursue a review or appeal.

There is no separate CM-SRIM helpline number published on the MSME Department's site, so the DIC office and the portal remain the only status channels; keep your application reference number, Udyam number and loan account number on hand whenever you call or write in.

Common reasons CM-SRIM claims get rejected

Most CM-SRIM rejections trace back to one of the eligibility conditions being checked mechanically against your documents, not to any subjective judgment. Knowing the specific check helps you fix the underlying document rather than just resubmit the same form.

• Working capital loan account already an NPA. The bank's verification report checks account status as of the claim period, not at the time you apply. If the account slipped into NPA at any point the bank is verifying, the claim is rejected outright. Fix: clear the overdue before the bank files its report, or claim only for a period when the account was standard.
• Manufacturing turnover below 75 percent. The Chartered Accountant's certificate must show manufacturing turnover as a share of total FY 2022-23 turnover, and the checking officer works off that certificate. A CA certificate that reports only total turnover, without the manufacturing versus non-manufacturing break-up, gets the claim rejected or reverted for an incomplete document, even if the unit genuinely qualifies. Fix: have the CA certificate state the break-up explicitly in the prescribed format.
• Production start date after 31 March 2020. Applications from units that commenced commercial production later than the cutoff are rejected as a matter of eligibility, regardless of turnover or loan size. There is no partial benefit for a unit that narrowly misses this date.
• Unit closed for six months or more from 1 April 2023. The field visit is the primary check for this condition, so a unit that was non-operational for an extended stretch, even for reasons outside its control such as a fire or a market shock, will be rejected on the field officer's report unless it can show it resumed within the six-month limit.
• Claiming on a non-fund-based facility or the wrong loan account. CM-SRIM reimburses interest only on fund-based working capital (including EPC). Applications that include interest on a bank guarantee, letter of credit, or a term loan get that portion rejected. Because the scheme also permits only one bank and one loan account per claim, listing more than one account in a single application is a frequent, avoidable rejection ground.
• Sanctioned limit exceeds Rs 3 crore. Units with a working capital limit above the top slab are outside the scheme entirely; no partial reimbursement applies even on the portion up to Rs 3 crore.
• Manufacturing a restricted item. Applications from units making alcoholic beverages, tobacco products, Gudakhu, narcotic or psychotropic substances, or any other prohibited item are rejected on the nature of the product alone, independent of turnover, loan size or documentation quality.
• Ineligible organisation type. SHGs, FPOs, and government, cooperative or society entities controlled by the state or central government are excluded by category. A claim filed under a Udyam registration held by such an entity is rejected without reaching the financial checks.
• Missing or defective authorisation. Since the application must be signed by the Proprietor, Managing Partner, Managing Director or an authorised signatory, a claim signed by someone else without an attached Power of Attorney, Board Resolution or Society Resolution is commonly reverted for this single missing document.
• Overlap with another scheme's benefit not disclosed. The guidelines require declaring any similar interest reimbursement already availed for FY 2023-24 under another state or central scheme. Non-disclosure discovered during verification, or a claim for the full slab amount where only the differential is due, results in the claim being cut back or rejected for misrepresentation, with the stricter 18 percent penal-interest recovery clause applying where the omission looks deliberate rather than a bona fide error.