New Delhi: Highlighting the positive impact of the decisions taken by the Goods and Services Tax (GST) Council, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has said that the GST 2.0 reforms, which are set to be effective from September 22, 2025, have simplified the tax structure by fishing only two slabs and would also help resolve the long-standing classification disputes.
Addressing the conclave – ‘Tax Reforms for Rising Bharat’, Sitharaman highlighted that almost all items which were taxed at 12 per cent have now been placed under the 5 per cent bracket.
The GST Council’s decision has resulted in 99 per cent of all goods which were earlier in the 12 per cent GST bracket to be placed under the 5 per cent slab is a significant one, Sitharaman said.
Giving the logic behind the government’s decision to go ahead with the implementation of GST reforms from September 22, 2025, Sitharaman said every state in India has their own festivals, and thus it was to implement the reforms much ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s instruction of launching them before the Diwali festival.
She further said that the people engaged in the businesses found it hard to really to understand the exact bracket under which a product should be placed under the previous regime. Sitharaman assured that no more disputes over GST classification will be there after the reforms come into effect from 22nd September.
The 56th meeting of the GST Council inter-alia made the recommendations relating to changes in GST tax rates on September 3, 2025.
New GST Rates of some products
Items |
Previous GST rates | New GST rates |
| Live horses | 12.00% | 5.00% |
| Ultra-High Temperature (UHT) milk | 5.00% | Nil |
| Condensed milk | 12.00% | 5.00% |
| Butter and other fats (i.e. ghee, butter oil, etc.) and oils derived from milk; dairy spreads | 12.00% | 5.00% |
| Cheese | 12.00% | 5.00% |
| Chena or paneer, pre-packaged and labelled | 5.00% | Nil |
| Brazil nuts, dried, whether or not Shelled or Peeled | 12.00% | 5.00% |
| Other nuts, dried, whether or not shelled or peeled, such as Almonds, Hazelnuts or filberts (Corylus spp.), Chestnuts (Castanea spp.), Pistachios, Macadamia nuts, Kola nuts (Cola spp.), Pine nuts | 12.00% | 5.00% |
| Dates (soft or hard), figs, pineapples, avocados, guavas, mangoes (other than mangoes sliced, dried) and mangosteens, dried | 12.00% | 5.00% |
| Citrus fruit, such as Oranges, Mandarins (including tangerines and satsumas); clementines, wilkings and similar citrus hybrids, Grapefruit, including pomelos, Lemons (Citrus limon, Citrus limonum) and limes (Citrus aurantifolia, Citrus latifolia), dried | 12.00% | 5.00% |
| Fruit, dried, other than that of headings 0801 to 0806; mixtures of nuts or dried fruits of Chapter 8 (other than dried tamarind) | 12.00% | 5.00% |
| Malt, whether or not roasted | 18.00% | 5.00% |
| Starches; inulin | 12.00% | 5.00% |
| Vegetable saps and extracts; pectic substances, pectinates and pectates; agar-agar and other mucilages and thickeners, whether or not modified, derived from vegetable products | 18.00% | 5.00% |
| Bidi wrapper leaves (tendu) | 18.00% | 5.00% |
| Indian katha | 18.00% | 5.00% |
| Pig fats (including lard) and poultry fat, other than that of heading 0209 or 1503 | 12.00% | 5.00% |
| Fats of bovine animals, sheep or goats, other than those of heading 1503 | 12.00% | 5.00% |
| Lard stearin, lard oil, oleo stearin, oleo-oil and tallow oil, not emulsified or mixed or otherwise prepared | 12.00% | 5.00% |
| Fats and oils and their fractions, of fish or marine mammals, whether or not refined, but not chemically modified | 12.00% | 5.00% |
| Wool grease and fatty substances derived therefrom (including lanolin) | 12.00% | 5.00% |
| Other animal fats and oils and their fractions, whether or not refined, but not chemically modified | 12.00% | 5.00% |
| Animal or microbial fats and animal or microbial oils and their fractions, partly or wholly hydrogenated, inter-esterified, re-esterified or elaidinised, whether or not refined, but not further prepared | 12.00% | 5.00% |
| Edible mixtures or preparations of animal fats or microbial fats or animal oils or microbial oils or of fractions of different animal fats or microbial fats or animal oils or microbial oils of this Chapter, other than edible fats or oils or their fractions of heading 1516 | 12.00% | 5.00% |
| All goods i.e. Margarine, Linoxyn | 18.00% | 5.00% |
| Animal or microbial fats and animal or microbial oils and their fractions, boiled, oxidised, dehydrated, sulphurised, blown, polymerised by heat in vacuum or in inert gas or otherwise chemically modified, excluding those of heading 1516; inedible mixtures or preparations of animal, vegetable or microbial fats or oils or of fractions of different fats or oils of this chapter, not elsewhere specified of included | 12.00% | 5.00% |
| Glycerol, crude; glycerol waters and glycerol lyes | 18.00% | 5.00% |
| Vegetable waxes (other than triglycerides), Beeswax, other insect waxes and spermaceti, whether or not refined or coloured | 18.00% | 5.00% |
| Degras, residues resulting from the treatment of fatty substances or animal or vegetable waxes | 18.00% | 5.00% |
| Sausages and similar products, of meat, meat offal, blood or insects; food preparations based on these products | 12.00% | 5.00% |
| Other prepared or preserved meat, meat offal, blood or insects | 12.00% | 5.00% |
| Extracts and juices of meat, fish or crustaceans, molluscs or other aquatic invertebrates | 12.00% | 5.00% |
| Prepared or preserved fish; caviar and caviar substitutes prepared from fish eggs | 12.00% | 5.00% |
| Crustaceans, molluscs and other aquatic invertebrates prepared or preserved | 12.00% | 5.00% |
| All goods, including refined sugar containing added flavouring or colouring matter, sugar cubes | 12.00% | 5.00% |
| Other sugars, including chemically pure lactose, maltose, glucose and fructose, in solid form; sugar syrups not containing added flavouring or colouring matter; artificial honey, whether or not mixed with natural honey; caramel | 18.00% | 18.00% |
| Sugar boiled confectionery | 12.00% | 5.00% |
| Sugar confectionery | 18.00% | 5.00% |
| Cocoa butter, fat and oil | 18.00% | 5.00% |
| Cocoa powder, not containing added sugar or sweetening matter | 18.00% | 5.00% |
| Chocolates and other food preparations containing cocoa | 18.00% | 5.00% |
| Malt extract, food preparations of flour, groats, meal, starch or malt extract, not containing cocoa or containing less than 40% by weight of cocoa calculated on a totally defatted basis, not elsewhere specified or included; food preparations of goods of heading 0401 to 0404, not containing cocoa or containing less than 5% by weight of cocoa calculated on a totally defatted basis not elsewhere specified or included | 18.00% | 5.00% |
| Pasta, whether or not cooked or stuffed (with meat or other substances) or otherwise prepared, such as spaghetti, macaroni, noodles, lasagne, gnocchi, ravioli, cannelloni; couscous, whether or not prepared | 12.00% | 5.00% |
| All goods i.e. Corn flakes, bulgar wheat, prepared foods obtained from cereal flakes, Fortified Rice Kernel (FRK) | 18.00% | 5.00% |
| Pastry, cakes, biscuits and other bakers’ wares, whether or not containing cocoa; communion wafers, empty cachets of a kind suitable for pharmaceutical use, sealing wafers, rice paper and similar products (other than bread, pizza bread, khakhra, chapathi, roti) | 18.00% | 5.00% |
| Extruded or expanded products, savoury or salted | 12.00% | 5.00% |
| Pizza bread | 5.00% | Nil |
| Khakhra, chapathi or roti | 5.00% | Nil |
| Vegetables, fruit, nuts and other edible parts of plants, prepared or preserved by vinegar or acetic acid | 12.00% | 5.00% |
| Tomatoes prepared or preserved otherwise than by vinegar or acetic acid | 12.00% | 5.00% |