GST on school essentials: Full list of tax cuts on notebooks, pencils, erasers and other stationery items

The Goods and Services Tax (GST) Council on Wednesday slashed rates on a range of school and study essentials, exempting many items entirely and cutting rates on others to 5%.

At its marathon 56th meeting chaired by Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, the Council decided to reduce GST on erasers from 5% to Nil.

Items such as printed maps, atlases, wall maps, topographical plans and globes; pencil sharpeners; pencils, crayons, pastels, drawing charcoals and tailor’s chalk; as well as exercise books, graph books, laboratory notebooks and notebooks have also been moved from the 12% slab to Nil-rated.

On the other hand, mathematical boxes, geometry boxes and colour boxes, earlier taxed at 12%, will now attract a reduced GST rate of 5%.

The changes form part of a wider restructuring of India’s indirect tax system, under which the existing four-tier GST framework of 5%, 12%, 18% and 28% has been simplified to just two slabs of 5% and 18%.

A special 40% category has been carved out for luxury and demerit goods.

The new rates will come into force from September 22.

The Centre has maintained that lower prices will boost consumption and help offset any short-term revenue loss.

Introduced in July 2017, GST subsumed multiple central and state levies into a single tax.

Wednesday’s decisions mark the most sweeping changes since then. Prime Minister Narendra Modi said that wide-ranging reforms approved by the GST Council will improve the lives of citizens and ensure ease of doing business for all, especially small traders and businesses.

In a post on X, he said the Union government had prepared a detailed proposal for broad-based GST rate rationalisation and process reforms, aimed at ease of living for the common man and strengthening the economy.

He added, "Glad to state that the GST Council, comprising the Union and the States, has collectively agreed to the proposals submitted by the Union Government on GST rate cuts & reforms, which will benefit the common man, farmers, MSMEs, middle-class, women and youth."