The 2026 slab map — what sits where
Since the September 2025 rationalisation, almost everything you buy falls into one of two working slabs: 5% for essentials and merit goods, 18% as the standard rate. Around them sit three special cases — 0% for the untouchables (fresh food, health and life insurance, education, healthcare), 3% for gold and silver, and 40% for the goods the government would frankly rather you bought less of: big cars, tobacco, pan masala, sugary drinks.
The clean two-slab core is why most rate questions now have short answers. Phone? 18%. Restaurant meal? 5%. EV? 5%. SUV? 40%. The finder above covers the thirty-odd items people actually ask about; pick one and it applies the right rate to your price, including the CGST/SGST split as it would appear on the invoice.
| 0% — exempt | fresh food, milk, education, health & life insurance |
| 3% — bullion | gold, silver, jewellery (making charges: 5%) |
| 5% — merit | packaged food, medicines, EVs, restaurants, budget hotels |
| 18% — standard | electronics, appliances, telecom, most services, small cars |
| 40% — demerit | large cars & SUVs, big bikes, tobacco, aerated drinks |
Why the same thing can carry two rates
A few categories split by price or size rather than by what the thing is. Hotel rooms are 5% up to ₹7,500 a night and 18% above it. Apparel and footwear are 5% up to ₹2,500 and 18% beyond. Movie tickets flip from 5% to 18% at ₹100. Cars split by engine size and length — a hatchback is 18%, the SUV parked next to it is 40%.
These thresholds create real cliff effects at the boundary. A ₹7,400 hotel room costs ₹7,770 all-in; price it at ₹7,600 and the bill jumps to ₹8,968 — the extra ₹200 of room tariff costs the guest nearly ₹1,200. Businesses price around these lines deliberately, and as a buyer it occasionally pays to notice when you are ₹100 away from a different slab.
Who decides, and how to verify a rate
Rates are set by the GST Council — the Centre and all states voting together — and notified by the CBIC. Every product maps to an HSN code (goods) or SAC code (services), and the legal rate hangs off that code, not off the product’s everyday name. When a seller and a buyer disagree about a rate, the HSN code on the invoice settles it.
This finder reflects the headline classification for the common consumer case. For edge cases — composite products, bundled services, anything where lakhs ride on the answer — check the CBIC rate schedule against the specific HSN code, or ask a GST practitioner. Rate disputes over classification are a small industry of their own.
What the September 2025 rationalisation changed
The old four-slab structure (5/12/18/28) had made rate-hunting a sport: was a biscuit 12% or 18%? The 2025 reform collapsed 12% into 5% and 28% into 18%, moved genuinely luxury and sin goods up to a new 40% rate, and exempted individual health and life insurance entirely. Household staples of the argument — TVs, ACs, cement, small cars — all landed at 18%, mostly down from 28%.
If you last memorised GST rates before September 2025, most of what you remember is out of date — usually in your favour. The one direction that got costlier is the 40% band, which absorbed the old 28%-plus-cess goods.