Big GST cuts from Sept 22: See what’s cheaper now and what got pricier, full breakdown inside

India's comprehensive GST reform, implemented from September 22, delivers sweeping tax rate changes across over a hundred categories. The overhaul reduces rates on essential goods, daily-use items, agricultural inputs, and healthcare products while hiking taxes on luxury vehicles, tobacco products, caffeinated beverages, and even cricket match tickets. Below is the complete list of revised GST rates, sector-wise and itemized.

Food Sector

• Animal and vegetable fats/oils (many subtypes): 12% → 5%
• Margarine, linoxyn: 18% → 5%
• Glycerol: 18% → 5%
• Beeswax, vegetable waxes: 18% → 5%
• Meat, fish, preserves (various): 12% → 5%
• Dairy products (butter, ghee, cheese, condensed/paneer): 12% → 5%
• Soya milk drinks: 12% → 5%
• Refined sugar, boiled confectionery: 12%/18% → 5%
• Chocolates and cocoa powder: 18% → 5%
• Pasta, corn flakes, noodles, biscuits, malt extract (non-cocoa): 12%/18% → 5%
• Jams, jellies, marmalade, nut/fruit paste, dried fruit, nuts: 12% → 5%
• Fruit juices, tender coconut water: 12% → 5%
• Pre-packaged pizza bread, khakhra, chapathi, roti: 5% → Nil

Consumer and Household Essentials

• Hair oil, shampoo, toothpaste, shaving products, talcum powder: 18% → 5%
• Toilet soap (bar/cake): 18% → 5%
• Toothbrush, dental floss: 18% → 5%
• Shaving cream/lotion, aftershave: 18% → 5%
• Common tableware/kitchenware (wood, iron, copper, aluminium, plastic): 12% → 5%
• Feeding bottles and nipples, plastic beads: 12% → 5%
• Erasers: 5% → Nil
• Candles, handcrafted candles: 12% → 5%
• Safety matches: 12% → 5%
• Umbrellas & accessories: 12% → 5%
• Sewing needles: 12% → 5%
• Sewing machines & parts: 12% → 5%
• Hand bags made of cotton/jute: 12% → 5%
• Napkins/diapers for babies: 12% → 5%
• Furniture wholly made of bamboo, cane, rattan: 12% → 5%
• Milk cans (iron/steel/aluminium): 12% → 5%
• Pencils, sharpeners, chalk: 12% → Nil
• Maps, globes, charts: 12% → Nil
• Exercise books, notebooks (writing, graph, lab): 12%/5% → Nil

Electronics & Appliances

• Air conditioners: 28% → 18%
• Dishwashing machines: 28% → 18%
• TVs (LED, LCD), monitors, projectors: 28% → 18%
• Agriculture & Fertilizer
• Tractors (except road tractors >1800cc): 12% → 5%
• Rear tractor tyres/tubes: 18% → 5%
• Agricultural machinery for soil/harvest/thresh: 12% → 5%
• Composting machines: 12% → 5%
• Sprinklers/drip irrigation/lawn/sports rollers: 12% → 5%
• Bio-pesticides, micronutrients: 12% → 5%
• Pumps for fuel/lubricants: 28% → 18%
• Hydraulic pumps for tractors: 18% → 5%

Healthcare

• Individual health & life insurance: 18% → Nil (Exempt)
• Thermometers, diagnostic kits & reagents: 12%/18% → 5%
• Blood glucose monitors (glucometer): 12% → 5%
• Medical grade oxygen & hydrogen peroxide: 12% → 5%
• Corrective spectacles: 12% → 5%
• Medical/surgical rubber gloves: 12% → 5%
• Many drugs and specialty medicines: 12% → 5%/Nil (varies)
• Selected rare drugs: 5% or 12% → Nil

Transportation Sector

• Tyres (most vehicle categories): 28% → 18%
• Motor vehicles (small cars, three wheelers, ambulances, motorcycles ≤350cc, goods transport vehicles): 28% → 18%
• Motorcycles >350cc: 28% → 40%
• Large SUVs, luxury/premium cars, hybrid cars above threshold, racing cars: 28% → 40%
• Rowing boats/canoes: 28% → 18%
• Bicycles and non-motor tricycles: 12% → 5%

Tobacco & Beverages

• Cigars, cigarettes, tobacco products: 28% → 40%
• Bidi (traditional hand-rolled): 28% → 18%
• Carbonated/aerated beverages, flavoured drinks, caffeinated beverages: 28% → 40%
• Plant-based milk, fruit pulp drinks: 18%/12% → 5%

Textiles & Apparel

• Synthetic yarns, nonwoven fabrics, sewing thread, staple fibres: 12%/18% → 5%
• Apparel, non-handmade, value not exceeding ₹2,500: 12% → 5%
• Apparel, non-handmade, value exceeding ₹2,500: 12% → 18%

Paper Sector

• Paper for exercise notebooks, graph books, lab notebooks: 12% → Nil
• Regular writing/printing/graphic paper: 12% → 18%
• Paper sacks/bags, biodegradable bags: 18% → 5%

Handicrafts & Art

• Various carved art ware/products (wood, stone, base metal, cork): 12% → 5%
• Handmade paper & paperboard: 12% → 5%
• Handicraft lamps: 12% → 5%
• Original paintings, sculptures, pastels, antique collectibles: 12% → 5%

Leather Sector

• Finished leather (most types): 12% → 5%
• Leather accessories, gloves, waste: 12% → 5%
• Construction & Building
• Tiles, bricks, stone inlay work: 12% → 5%
• Portland, slag, hydraulic cement: 28% → 18%

Energy & Renewables

• Solar cookers/water heaters, biogas/wind/waste to energy/solar panels: 12% → 5%
• Fuel cell motor vehicles: 12% → 5%
• Coal, lignite, peat: 5% → 18%

Service Sector (Key Reductions & Increases)

• Job work, umbrella, printing, bricks, pharmaceuticals, hides/leather: 12% with ITC → 5% with ITC
• Treatment of effluents/biomedical waste: 12% → 5%
• Insurance for goods carriage: 12% → 5%
• Hotel accommodation below ₹7,500/unit/day: 12% → 5%
• Cinemas (ticket ≤ ₹100): 12% → 5%
• Beauty & physical well-being services: 18% → 5% (no ITC)
• Casino/race club admission, betting/gambling: 28% → 40%
• Cricket match tickets (domestic & international): 12% → 18%

Sectors/Items Increased to Higher GST

Big bikes (>350cc), luxury/sports/yacht/casino/race club admission, tobacco products, carbonated and caffeinated drinks, aerated drinks, specific hybrids & premium cars: Now at 40%

Miscellaneous (Imports, Defence, Technical)

Technical documentation, select military, aircraft/ship parts, diamonds, antiques: Now IGST exempted or cut to Nil

Registration & Refund Process Reform 

• Automatic GST registration within 3 working days for eligible businesses
• Opt-in for simplified compliance for those under ₹2.5 lakh monthly turnover
• Input credit checks for refund eligibility
• Revised zero-rated/supply inversion structure
• 90% provisional refunds allowed based on system evaluation