Served from Bengaluru
Debt collection agency in Kolkata — B2B receivables, recovery and enforcement for businesses owed by Kolkata companies.
Kolkata is the metro with the highest search demand for collection agencies that no national firm has built a page for — and the NCLT Kolkata bench covers West Bengal, Bihar, Jharkhand and the north-east, so a Kolkata practice reaches debtors across the whole east.
Served from Bengaluru
Kolkata matters, run from our head office
Practitioners and field collectors travel to Kolkata for on-the-ground work. Legal matters are run by advocates from our screened network in Kolkata.
Working across Howrah.
+91 80 6824 8827 · info@kenstonecapital.inEvery debtor validated before anyone spends a day on it
Every action on record on our collection platform
Nothing filed without your written approval
Three stages, in Kolkata
What is different about Kolkata
The forum
Kolkata is one of the few cities where the High Court hears commercial suits on its original side, and West Bengal notified a tiered structure in March 2020: the City Civil Court at Calcutta takes commercial suits from Rs 10 lakh to Rs 1 crore concurrently with the High Court's Commercial Division, and the High Court is exclusive above Rs 1 crore. The NCLT Kolkata bench covers West Bengal, Bihar, Jharkhand and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, so a great deal of eastern India's insolvency work is heard here.
If you are a registered MSME
A supplier registered on Udyam as a micro or small enterprise has a route the rest of the market does not: section 15 of the MSMED Act makes payment due in 45 days, and sections 16 to 18 let the supplier refer the unpaid invoice to a Micro and Small Enterprises Facilitation Council instead of filing suit. Interest runs at three times the RBI bank rate, compounded monthly, and a buyer who wants to challenge the award must first deposit 75 per cent of it. Traders are excluded; the registration must pre-date the supply. West Bengal runs three regional councils — Kolkata, South Bengal and North Bengal — and the Kolkata council covers the city and Howrah.
The debtors
The debtor base here is jute and jute products, engineering and castings, tea trading and auction, chemicals and pharmaceuticals, IT and business services, leather at Bantala, wholesale trading and distribution. The commercial belt runs through Taratala, Bantala, Budge Budge and the Salt Lake and New Town IT belt, with Dankuni, Uluberia, Kalyani and the Falta SEZ in the surrounding districts and Burrabazar as the wholesale trading market.
What we see in Kolkata
Burrabazar's wholesale trade still runs substantially on hundi-like credit and long-standing family relationships, with documentation that would not survive a courtroom. The engineering and jute belts are better papered but slower. In both, we have found that the existence of a cheque — even an old one — is usually the single most important fact on the file.
How we work a Kolkata file
The same six steps on every account, whether it is one invoice or a book. What changes by city is the forum and the ground work, not the method.
- 1
Intake and validation
Before anyone spends a day on your file, every debtor entity is checked: is it still trading, is it the entity that actually contracted with you, and is there anything to recover from. Where a Kolkata debtor has ceased operating we say so and recommend a write-off — which earns us nothing. That is the point.
- 2
A named practitioner, not a queue
The file is allocated to one practitioner who owns it end to end. You deal with the person working your accounts, not with whoever answers the phone.
- 3
Contact, on record
Every call, every promise to pay and every reminder is recorded on our collection management platform. When a promise breaks, the next step follows from the record rather than from someone's memory — which is what makes escalation a step rather than a fresh start.
- 4
Field work where it is warranted
Practitioners and field collectors travel to Kolkata for on-the-ground work, including Taratala, Bantala and Budge Budge. A field visit is a decision we justify to you, not a line item we add by default.
- 5
The escalation decision, stated honestly
We tell you when a claim is not worth enforcing, and why. Where it is worth enforcing, we tell you which route the facts support — a demand notice, section 138 where a cheque has bounced, a summary suit, or a section 9 petition at the NCLT Kolkata bench — and what each would cost and take.
- 6
Nothing filed without your written approval
No notice goes out and no matter is filed in your name until you have approved it in writing. The advocate's fee and the court fees are stated separately, before you decide.
What it costs. Recovery is charged as a success fee — a percentage of what is actually recovered, and nothing if nothing is recovered. The DSO Reduction Programme is priced separately, as a seat-based monthly fee. Enforcement is priced case by case, with the advocate's fee and the court or tribunal fees stated as separate lines before you approve anything.
A success fee on its own rewards an agency for working your easy accounts and letting the hard ones go quiet. How recovery is priced, and the three things we do that earn us nothing →
Questions from Kolkata businesses
Do you have an office in Kolkata?
No. Kenstone Capital is headquartered in Bengaluru and serves Kolkata from there. Practitioners and field collectors travel for on-the-ground work, and legal matters are run by advocates from our screened network in Kolkata itself. We say this plainly because a debtor in Kolkata will ask, and the answer does not change what we can do.
How does debt collection work for a Kolkata debtor?
The same three stages as anywhere: the DSO Reduction Programme for receivables that are slipping, practitioner-led recovery for accounts that have gone bad, and legal enforcement — notice and settlement first — for debtors who leave no other route. What differs in Kolkata is the forum: Section 9 petitions against companies registered in West Bengal and several eastern states are heard at the NCLT Kolkata bench. Commercial suits above the threshold go to the commercial division of the Calcutta High Court.
Can you recover from a Kolkata company that has shut down?
Sometimes, and you will know early either way. Our validation step checks each debtor entity at intake, because in Kolkata a company that has gone quiet has often gone dark. If the entity still exists, the question is whether an enforcement route reaches its assets, or whether insolvency does — and for a company registered here that means the NCLT Kolkata bench. If it does not, we say so before you spend anything, because the cost of finding out late is always higher than the cost of being told now.
Where would a Section 9 petition against a Kolkata company actually be heard?
Kolkata is one of the few cities where the High Court hears commercial suits on its original side, and West Bengal notified a tiered structure in March 2020: the City Civil Court at Calcutta takes commercial suits from Rs 10 lakh to Rs 1 crore concurrently with the High Court's Commercial Division, and the High Court is exclusive above Rs 1 crore. The NCLT Kolkata bench covers West Bengal, Bihar, Jharkhand and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, so a great deal of eastern India's insolvency work is heard here.
We are a registered MSME supplier in Kolkata. Is there a faster route than a suit?
A supplier registered on Udyam as a micro or small enterprise has a route the rest of the market does not: section 15 of the MSMED Act makes payment due in 45 days, and sections 16 to 18 let the supplier refer the unpaid invoice to a Micro and Small Enterprises Facilitation Council instead of filing suit. Interest runs at three times the RBI bank rate, compounded monthly, and a buyer who wants to challenge the award must first deposit 75 per cent of it. Traders are excluded; the registration must pre-date the supply. West Bengal runs three regional councils — Kolkata, South Bengal and North Bengal — and the Kolkata council covers the city and Howrah.
Discuss your receivables
Tell us where you are on the curve. A practitioner — not a sales desk — reads every enquiry and replies within one working day.