GST Rates 2020-21, Complete List of Goods and Services Tax Slabs

PUBLISHED : 09-05-2020 00:00:00

GST is perhaps the biggest tax-related reform in India since Independence bringing uniformity in the taxation structure and eliminating the cascading of taxes that was levied in the past. The GST Council meets from time to time to revise the GST rates for various products. Several states and industries recommend reduction in GST tax rate for various items which are discussed in these meetings.

GST stands for Goods and Services Tax. Following are the various types of GST.

CGST –Central GST
SGST –State GST
IGST –Integrated GST

GST Tax Rates on some common items

Tax Rates	Products
0.25%	Cut and semi-polished stones are included under this tax slab.
5%	Household necessities such as edible oil, sugar, spices, tea, and coffee (except instant) are included. Coal, Mishti/Mithai (Indian Sweets) and Life-saving drugs are also covered under this GST slab.
12%	This includes computers and processed food
18%	Hair oil, toothpaste and soaps, capital goods and industrial, intermediaries are covered in this slab.
28%	Luxury items such as small cars, consumer durables like AC and Refrigerators, premium cars, cigarettes and aerated drinks, High-end motorcycles are included here.

Basic household items like toothpaste and hair oil, which currently attract 28% tax, will be taxed at 18% only.
Sweets will also be taxable at 5%.
Tax rates on coal has also been reduced from 11.69% to just 5% in order to relieve the pressure on power industries.
GST also gives a major push to domestic industries as they will be able to procure seamless input credit for capital goods. Make in India campaign is set to flourish after this reform.

GST Rates for Goods

The government has proposed a 4-tier tax structure for all goods and services under the slabs- 5%, 12%, 18% and 28%. After the recent revision of GST rates, these are the commodities that fall under the four tax slabs along with those that do not attract any tax. Please note that only those commodities are included in this list whose rates have been revised in various council meetings.

UPDATE: As per 37th GST Council Meeting, cut and semi-polished stones will be taxed at 0.25% GST. This is a 5th GST tier that only includes a few products.

No Tax

Apart from other items that enjoy zero GST tax rate, these are the commodities added to the list after 11th June rate revision –

Hulled cereal grains like barley, wheat, oat, rye, etc.	Bones and horn-cores unworked and waste of these products.	Palmyra jaggery	All types of salt
Kajal [other than kajal pencil sticks]	Picture books, colouring books or drawing books for children	Human hair – dressed, thinned, bleached or otherwise worked	Sanitary Napkins
Vegetables preserved using various techniques including brine and other preservatives that are unsuitable for immediate human consumption.	Music Books/manuscripts	Dicalcium Phosphate (DCP) of animal feed grade conforming to IS specification No. 5470 :2002	Unit container-packed frozen branded vegetables (uncooked/steamed)

5% Tax Slab

Given below are the items that have been added to the 5% GST tax rate slab along with the other existing items-

Cashew nuts/cashew nuts in shell	Ice and snow	Bio gas	Insulin	Marble rubble
Aggarbatti and Kites	Accessories/parts for carriages designed for differently-abled individuals	Coir mats, matting and floor covering	Pawan Chakki that is Wind-based Atta Chakki	Natural cork
Postage or revenue stamps, stamp-postmarks, first-day covers, etc.	Numismatic coins	Braille paper, braille typewriters, braille watches, hearing aids and other appliances to compensate for a defect or disability	Fly-ash blocks	Walking sticks

12% Tax Slab

After the GST council meeting on 11th June, the following items were added to the 12% GST rates category-

Preparations of vegetables, fruits, nuts or other parts of plants, including pickle, murabba, chutney, jam, jelly	Ketchups, sauces and mustard sauce but excluding curry paste, mayonnaise and salad dressings, mixed condiments and mixed dressings	Bari made of pulses including mungodi	Menthol and menthol crystals, peppermint, fractionated/de-terpenated mentha oil, dementholised oil, Mentha piperita oil and spearmint oil	All diagnostic kits and reagents
Plastic beads	Exercise books and note books	Glasses for corrective spectacles and flint buttons	Spoons, forks, ladles, skimmers, cake servers, fish knives, tongs	Fixed Speed Diesel Engines
Two-way radio (Walkie talkie) used by defence, police and paramilitary forces etc.	Intraocular lens	Corrective spectacles	Playing cards, chess board, carom board and other board games, like ludo, etc.	Debagged/roughly squared cork
Items manufactured from natural cork	Agglomerated cork

18% Tax Slab

The items mentioned below have been added to the 18% GST tax rate slab among the other existing items-

Kajal pencil sticks	Dental wax	Plastic Tarpaulin	School satchels and bags other than of leather or composition leather; toilet cases, Hand bags and shopping bags of artificial plastic material, cotton or jute; Handbags of other materials excluding wicker work or basket work	Headgear and parts thereof
Precast Concrete Pipes	Salt Glazed Stone Ware Pipes	Aluminium foil	All goods, including hooks and eyes	Rear Tractor tyres and rear tractor tyre tubes
Rear Tractor wheel rim, tractor centre housing, tractor housing transmission, tractor support front axle	Weighing Machinery other than electric or electronic weighing machinery	Printers other than multifunction printers	Ball bearing, Roller Bearings, Parts & related accessories	Transformers Industrial Electronics
Electrical Transformer	Static Converters (UPS)	CCTV including CCTV with video recorders	Set top Box for TV	Computer monitors not exceeding 17 inches
Electrical Filaments or discharge lamps	Winding Wires, Coaxial cables and Optical Fiber	Perforating or stapling machines (staplers), pencil sharpening machines	Baby carriages	Instruments for measuring length, for use in the hand (for example, measuring rods and tapes, micrometers, callipers)
Bamboo furniture	Swimming pools and paddling pools	Televisions/Monitors (upto 32 inches)	Power banks powered by Lithium-ion batteries	Sports goods, games consoles and related items with HS code 9504
All items with HS code 8483 including gear boxes, transmission cranks and pulleys	Used or retreaded pneumatic rubber tires

28% Tax Slab

The council meeting was held to ‘reduce’ the tax rates on certain items based on customer preferences. Hence, no additional items were added to the highest GST rates slab of 28%.

*The GST rates for various products are subject to change from time to time without prior information.

GST Rates for Services

Government has also imposed GST on Services with the same 4-tier tax structure as of goods. GST rates on services comprising of 5%, 12%, 18% and 28% comes with various pros and cons for the consumers. However, government has exempted healthcare and educational services from the purview of the GST.

The Goods and Services Tax council has passed the rate slabs at NIL, 5%, 12%, 18%, 28%. Some of the services categorized under different slabs are mentioned below :

Nil GST

Chargeable services offered on Basic Savings Bank Deposit (BSBD) account opened under the PMJDY (Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana)
Hotel accommodation for transaction value per unit per day being Rs. 1000 or less

5% Tax Slab

Working for printing of newspapers	Goods transported in a vessel from outside India	Renting a motor cab without fuel cost	Transport services in AC contract/stage or radio taxi	Transport by air (scheduled)/air travel for purpose of pilgrimage via chartered/non-scheduled flights
Tour operator services	Leasing of aircrafts	Print media ad space

12% Tax Slab

Rail transportation of goods in containers from a third party other than Indian Railways	Air travel excluding economy	Food /drinks at restaurants without AC/heating or liquor license	Renting of accommodation for more than Rs.1000 and less than Rs.2500 per day	Railway wagons, coaches, rolling stock (without refund of accumulated Input Tax Credit/ITC)
Construction of building for the purpose of sale	IP rights on a temporary basis	Movie Tickets less than or equal to Rs. 100	Chit fund services by foremen	Hotel accommodation for transaction value per unit per day ranging between Rs. 1001 to 7500

18% Tax Slab

Food/drinks at restaurants with liquor license	Food /drinks at restaurants with AC/heating	Outdoor catering	Renting for accommodation for more than Rs.2500 but less than Rs.5000 per day	Hotel accommodation for transaction value per unit per day being Rs. 7501 or more
Circus, Indian classical, folk, theatre, drama	Supply of works contract	Movie Tickets over Rs. 100	Supply of food, shamiyana, and party arrangement

28% Tax Slab

Entertainment events-amusement facility, water parks, theme parks, joy rides, merry-go-round, race course, go-carting, casinos, ballet, sporting events like IPL	Race club services	Gambling
Food/drinks at AC 5-star hotels

GST on Loans and Advances

Earlier Service Tax was levied on Loans which has now been replaced by GST which would now be levied on loans. The rate of Service Tax was 15% whereas the rate of GST is 18%. A lot of people are of the opinion that the effective cost of having a loan would increase as the rate of GST is 3% higher than the rate of Service Tax. Several people are of the opinion that their EMI’s would increase as the rate has been increased by 3%. However, this is not the case as GST is not levied on repayment of loan or on payment of Interest on Loan.

GST is only levied on the processing charges and any other charges paid to the bank excluding the principal repayment and interest payment. These other charges include the Loan Processing Fees, Loan Prepayment Charges and other charges, if any. As a major chunk of the loan repayment comprises of principal repayment and interest payment, the impact of GST on Loans would be very negligible. The impact of GST on Home Loans and Personal Loans has been explained below for a much better understanding of the impact.

Mentioned below are the important loans and their GST rates:

(a) Personal Loan- 18%

(b) Home Loans- 18%

GST on Cars

Subsequent to bringing cars under the GST regime, the GST rate on cars has been fixed at 28% for all personal use vehicles featuring a petrol or diesel driven engine. However, in addition to GST, a composition cess is also applicable to cars over and above the GST Rate. Thus the overall tax rate applicable to vehicles under GST ranges from 29% to 50%. Lower rates of taxation are however applicable to cars driven by cleaner technologies such as fuel cells (including hydrogen fuel cell) and electric vehicles.

Know more about GST on Cars

GST on Gold

Subsequent to introduction of GST on items made from gold such as gold jewelry, the current GST rate on gold is 3%. However, a 5% GST rate is applicable to making charges applied to gold jewelry in case the manufacturing is outsourced to a job worker. This can however, be charged as input tax credit (ITC) by the jeweler and only a 3% GST charge is applied to the final bill paid by the purchaser of gold jewelry items.

Know more about GST on Gold

GST On Real Estate

GST is applicable to real estate purchases only if you are purchasing an under construction property. The GST rate applicable to such commercial or residential transactions is 12% till 31st March 2019. From 1st April, the applicable GST Rates on residential real estate will be 5% for non-affordable housing properties and 1% for affordable housing properties. No GST is applicable in case you are purchasing a ready to move in property. Additionally, different GST rates are applicable to various building materials used in the construction of houses/flats. This can range from 5% (sand, marble rubble, etc.) to 28% (cement, etc.).

Know more about GST on Real Estate

GST on Food

Food items especially fresh food mostly carry a Nil GST rate. However, packaged food stuff and semi-processed/processed foods do feature GST rates starting from 5% up to 18%. While no food stuff are currently included in the highest 28% GST bracket, the 18% rate of GST is applicable to some common food products such as chocolates as well as baked goods such as cakes.

Know more about GST on Food

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