Saree HSN Code Helper Tool

Updated 8 August 2026

GST on sarees changed in September 2025

If you learned the GST rules for textiles a few years ago, they've moved. The old system had a ₹1,000 cut-off and a 12% slab. Both are gone.

From 22 September 2025 there are four GST rates in India: 0%, 5%, 18% and 40%. The 12% and 28% slabs were removed. For anyone dealing in sarees, this is what it means in practice.

Cloth is 5%. An unstitched saree, dress material, a dupatta piece, running fabric — all 5%, whatever the price. A ₹250 cotton saree and a ₹9,000 Banarasi carry the same rate. Price makes no difference to cloth.

Stitched items depend on price. A blouse, petticoat or readymade garment is 5% if it costs ₹2,500 or less per piece, and 18% above that. The cut-off is per piece, not per bill and not per set.

This one distinction — cloth versus stitched — settles most of the confusion. If your customer is going to take it to a tailor, it's cloth. You'll still find pages online quoting ₹1,000 and 12%, so check the date on anything you read.

HSN codes for sarees, by fabric

The HSN code goes on your GST bill. It tells the system what the item is. And this is the part people get wrong most often: the code comes from what the cloth is made of, not what the product is called.

A saree isn't a category in the HSN system. There is no code for "saree." An unstitched saree is cloth, and cloth is classified by fibre. So a silk saree and a polyester saree sit in completely different chapters even though they look similar on the shelf.

Silk sarees — 5007

Woven silk fabric falls under heading 5007, covering pure silk and silk-waste fabric. GST is 5%. The catch is that a lot of what's sold as "silk" in the market is art silk — viscose or polyester — which is a different code in a different chapter. If you're buying to resell, ask your supplier for the actual fibre composition in writing. The label carries no weight if there's ever a question.

Cotton sarees — 5208 or 5209

Woven cotton fabric with 85% or more cotton splits by weight. Lighter fabric up to 200 grams per square metre is 5208; heavier is 5209. Kota Doria, most handloom cottons and cotton mulmul sit here, at 5%. If the cotton is blended below 85% with man-made fibre, it moves to 5210 or 5211.

Georgette, chiffon and art silk — 5407 and 5408

Polyester and nylon fabrics fall under 5407. Viscose and other artificial filament fabrics, including most "art silk", fall under 5408. Blended synthetic staple fabrics sit in the 5512 to 5516 range. All at 5%. For blends, the fibre that weighs the most decides the code — a saree that's 60% viscose and 40% silk is a viscose product on paper.

Dupattas and stoles — 6214

A dupatta isn't cloth in the eyes of the system. It's a finished article, sitting under heading 6214 alongside shawls, scarves, stoles and veils. Because it's a made-up article, the ₹2,500 price rule applies: 5% up to ₹2,500 per piece, 18% above. This trips people up constantly, because a dupatta feels like a piece of cloth. Sold finished, it isn't.

Dress material and unstitched sets

An unstitched suit piece is cloth, coded by fibre, at 5%. Where it gets murky is a set packed for retail sale — top, bottom and dupatta together as one unit. The classification of retail sets has been argued over for years. If you sell these in volume, get your CA to give you one written answer and then apply it consistently. Consistency matters more here than being clever.

Where traders get this wrong

Using the price rule on cloth. The ₹2,500 threshold applies to stitched garments only. Charging 18% on an expensive unstitched saree means overcharging your customer and creating a mismatch your CA has to unpick later.

Going by the product name. Silk saree, art silk, cotton silk — these are trade names, not classifications. Fibre content decides the code.

Guessing at blends. If you don't know what's in it, ask the supplier. A wrong declaration is your problem, not theirs.

Ignoring embroidery. There's a separate heading — 5810 — for embroidered fabric. A light border won't move your classification, but heavy zari or all-over work might. If a large part of your range is heavily worked, that's worth one conversation with a professional rather than a guess repeated across a thousand invoices.

Sending sarees outside India: the paper trail

Exports are zero-rated. You charge no GST at all — but only if you've filed a form called an LUT on the GST portal first. It's free, takes minutes, and expires every 31 March. Without it you pay IGST upfront and spend months claiming it back, which locks up working capital you probably don't have spare.

Before your first shipment you need four things: an IEC number from DGFT, a GST registration, the LUT, and an AD Code from your bank registered against the port you're shipping from. The IEC costs ₹500 and takes a couple of days. The AD Code takes about a week, and customs will reject your shipment without it.

For every shipment after that: a commercial invoice, a packing list, and either a courier customs form or a full shipping bill depending on how it's going. Add an e-way bill for moving the goods to the port if the consignment is above ₹50,000.

Two places people leave money on the table. The government refunds a percentage of your export value under a scheme called RoDTEP — but you have to be a member of the right export promotion council first, and you have to ask for it at the time of shipping. It can't be added afterwards. And if your buyer is in the UAE, Australia, Japan, Korea or another country India has a trade agreement with, a Certificate of Origin lets them pay less import duty. That's worth real money to them, so raise it while you're negotiating price.

Common questions

Disclaimer: This page is general information, not tax advice. Rules change and classification can depend on the specific product. Confirm with your chartered accountant before relying on it for filing.