Indebtedness Sustainability Metric helps assess whether the borrower’s total debt level can be serviced without creating financial stress. In MSME underwriting, a borrower may have bank loans, NBFC loans, supplier credit, unsecured promoter loans, vehicle loans, and informal liabilities. A sustainability metric looks beyond the proposed facility and checks whether all obligations fit within realistic cash flows. For example, even if a new term loan appears affordable in isolation, the borrower may already have high EMI commitments and stretched working capital. This matters because over-indebtedness is a common reason for delayed payments and restructuring. The caution is to capture all liabilities, including non-bank borrowings and related-party loans, and to stress-test repayment under lower sales or margin pressure.