India GST standard rate
India GST standard rate is 18 percent, in force since 22 Sep 2025, cited to Recommendations of the 56th Meeting of the GST Council, PIB press release, 3 September. Last checked against the official source on 19 Oct 2026.
Official source: Recommendations of the 56th Meeting of the GST Council, PIB press release · Last checked 2026-10-19 · source fingerprint
Goods and Services Tax standard rate. India's GST was rationalised in September 2025 ('GST 2.0') into a two-rate structure — Standard 18%, Merit 5% — plus a 40% de-merit rate; 18% is the official Standard Rate served here.
| Current value | 18 percent |
|---|---|
| In force from | 2025-09-22 |
| Official source | Recommendations of the 56th Meeting of the GST Council, PIB press release, 3 September 2025 (official PDF hosted by the GST Council Secretariat); implemented by Notification No. 9/2025-Central Tax (Rate) dated 17 September 2025, w.e.f. 22 September 2025 |
| Last verified | 2026-10-19 |
| Verification | primary — No verification limitation recorded — read from the official source cited. |
| Provenance | source fingerprint |
What this value means
56th GST Council (2025-09-03) rationalised the prior 4-tier structure (5/12/18/28) into a 2-rate 'Simple Tax': Standard Rate 18%, Merit Rate 5%, plus a special de-merit rate of 40% on select sin/luxury goods (large cars, sweetened beverages, tobacco); most 28% items moved to 18% and most 12% items to 5%, with compensation cess merged into the new rates. 18% is served as the single statutory Standard Rate per the Council's official designation. Nil-rated: UHT milk, paneer, Indian breads, individual life and health insurance, 36 lifesaving drugs. Special low rates on precious metals/stones (3% gold/silver, 0.25% rough diamonds, 1.5% cut and polished diamonds) were retained unchanged. Tobacco carve-out: pan masala, gutkha, cigarettes, zarda, unmanufactured tobacco and bidi stayed at pre-reform 28%+compensation cess until cess loan obligations were discharged, then moved to 40% (bidis 18%) w.e.f. 2026-02-01 via Notification No. 19/2025-Central Tax (Rate) dated 31 December 2025 (amending Notification 9/2025-CTR), with GST on these goods now levied on retail sale price; compensation cess ended 2026-02-01. GST is a dual levy: 18% = 9% CGST + 9% SGST intra-state, or 18% IGST inter-state. Access note: pib.gov.in HTML pages return 403 to automated fetchers; the identical press release PDF was loaded from gstcouncil.gov.in (117-page PDF incl. HSN annexures). CBIC rate notifications live on taxinformation.cbic.gov.in (dynamic portal, deep links unstable). REVERIFY 2026-10-19: the cited GST Council / PIB press release PDF still loads from gstcouncil.gov.in and states the Standard Rate of 18% under the 2-rate structure in force from 22 September 2025.
Earlier values
| From | Value | Source |
|---|---|---|
| 2017-07-01 | 18 | — |
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Other India series: RBI policy repo rate · Statutory late-payment interest · VAT registration threshold · Minimum wage · Public holidays · CPI inflation (year-on-year) · Corporate income tax rate · Withholding tax rates · Personal income tax bands · Statutory social-insurance contributions · Tax filing deadlines
The same figure elsewhere: Indonesia · Iraq · Israel · Japan · Jordan · all 28