Which GST rate applies to goods and services?
The GST rate on goods or a service is the rate the notification gives to that HSN or SAC. From 22 September 2025 the main schedules for goods are 5%, 18%, and 40%. Specified goods remain at 0.25%, 1.5%, 3%, or 28%. A product is not charged a round number chosen because it used to sit in a 12% list.
Which rate is charged?
Notification 9/2025-Integrated Tax (Rate), dated 17 September 2025, superseded Notification 1/2017. It notifies IGST of 5%, 18%, 40%, 3%, 0.25%, 1.5%, and 28% on the goods named in its schedules. The central and state notifications apply the same headings to CGST and SGST. A corrigendum of 18 September 2025 sits with that notification.
Services follow the service-rate notification for the SAC, not the goods schedule. A restaurant, a works contract, and a professional service are not classified by the HSN of the materials used.
What do the current schedules say?
| Rate | Where it sits |
|---|---|
| 5%, 18%, 40% | The main schedules. Most headings moved here. |
| 0.25%, 1.5%, 3%, 28% | Specified goods only, named in the later schedules. |
| Nil | A separate exemption notification, not a slab inside the rate notification. |
The old general 12% slab is not in this notification. A heading is read from the schedule in force, not from a 2021 chapter list.
The heading decides. The rate is the one next to that HSN in the current notification.
How is the heading chosen?
The digits follow turnover. Four digits on a B2B invoice when the preceding year is up to ₹5 crore, and six digits when it is above that. The count, and the portal search, are on the HSN digit page. Two products with similar names can sit in different headings and at different rates.
What does the invoice show?
The tax invoice shows the HSN or SAC, the rate, and the tax. An intra-state supply splits the rate into CGST and SGST. An inter-state supply charges it as IGST. That split is on the inter-state page. The invoice itself is on the GST invoice page.
Frequently asked questions
Four questions cover the old 12% slab, the remaining 28% goods, the state split, and the portal search.
Is 12% still a general slab?
No. Notification 9/2025 superseded the 2017 goods-rate notification. The general goods schedules in force from 22 September 2025 are 5%, 18%, and 40%. A product is charged 12% only if a current notification still names it at that rate.
Did 28% disappear?
The main 28% list moved. Specified goods are still notified at 28%, and others at 0.25%, 1.5%, or 3%. Those rates are read from the schedule, not assumed away.
Is the rate the same in every state?
The rate for a heading is the notified rate. On an intra-state invoice it is split into CGST and SGST. On an inter-state invoice the same rate is charged as IGST. The heading does not change with the state.
Where is a product’s rate checked?
On the GST portal’s HSN and SAC search, against the heading that matches the goods. A trade name is not the heading.
Sources
Goods rates from 22 September 2025 are in Notification 9/2025-Integrated Tax (Rate), dated 17 September 2025. The heading is searched on the GST portal.