Looking for expert help with Musical instrument GST rate and HSN code? The team at Tax Garden, based in Kondapur, Hyderabad, helps Indian SMEs stay compliant. End-to-end filings, notices, and deadline tracking, all in one place.
Key Takeaways
- Guitars, keyboards, drum kits, violins, pianos, wind instruments, strings and other accessories (Chapter 92) are 18% GST (Notification 9/2025-CT(R), Sch II S. Nos. 597 to 603).
- 134 indigenous handmade instruments, including tabla, sitar, veena, bansuri, dholak and the hand-pumped harmonium, are nil-rated (Notification 10/2025-CT(R), S. No. 161 and Annexure II).
- Speakers, microphones and amplifiers (8518) and instrument cases (4202) are also 18%. Repair and tuning is an 18% service.
- If you sell both, issue bills of supply for nil sales (or one invoice-cum-bill of supply to unregistered buyers) and reverse common credit under Rule 42.
- Income tax: Section 44AD (6% or 8%) for FY 2025-26; belated AY 2026-27 returns close on 31 December 2026.
What is the GST rate on musical instruments in India? Most musical instruments attract 18% GST (9% CGST plus 9% SGST). Pianos, guitars, wind and percussion instruments, keyboards and their parts and accessories fall under Chapter 92 in Schedule II of Notification 9/2025-Central Tax (Rate), effective 22 September 2025. Indigenous handmade instruments named in Annexure II of Notification 10/2025-CT(R), such as tabla, sitar and harmonium, are nil-rated.
Walk into a music shop in Hyderabad, Pune or Chennai and you'll see two tax worlds on the same shelf. The guitars, keyboards and drum kits carry 18% GST. The tabla pair next to them, the sitar on the wall and the harmonium on the counter carry none, as long as they're handmade and on the government's list. That split decides whether you need to register at all, what kind of bill you issue, and how much input tax credit you can keep. This post covers GST rates, billing, registration, credit reversal and income tax for FY 2025-26 (AY 2026-27) under the Income-tax Act 1961, with the Income-tax Act 2025 sections that apply from 1 April 2026. It's written for music shop owners and the accountants who file their returns.
Which instruments are 18% and which are nil?
Start with Chapter 92. Every heading a typical shop sells sits in Schedule II of Notification 9/2025-CT(R), the 18% schedule. Then check whether the instrument is on the nil list.
Tax Rate Chart
GST for Music Shops (from 22 September 2025)
Indigenous handmade instruments listed in Annexure II (tabla, sitar, veena, bansuri, dholak, harmonium and others)
10/2025-CT(R) S. No. 161
Pianos and other keyboard stringed instruments (9201)
9/2025-CT(R) Sch II, S. No. 597
Other string instruments: guitars, violins, harps (9202)
9/2025-CT(R) Sch II, S. No. 598
Wind instruments: clarinets, trumpets, accordions (9205)
9/2025-CT(R) Sch II, S. No. 599
Percussion instruments: drums, xylophones, cymbals (9206)
9/2025-CT(R) Sch II, S. No. 600
Electric and electronic instruments: keyboards, electric guitars (9207)
9/2025-CT(R) Sch II, S. No. 601
Parts and accessories; metronomes, tuning forks (9209)
9/2025-CT(R) Sch II, S. No. 603
Microphones, loudspeakers, headphones, amplifiers (8518)
9/2025-CT(R) Sch II, S. No. 491
Musical instrument cases and bags (4202)
9/2025-CT(R) Sch II, S. No. 145
Repair, maintenance and tuning services (9987)
11/2017-CT(R) S. No. 25
Source: CBIC Notifications 9/2025-CT(R), 10/2025-CT(R) and 11/2017-CT(R); matching IGST Notifications 9/2025 and 10/2025-IT(R); CT(R) list checked up to 10/2026-CT(R) (27-28 October 2026), none of which amends these entries
What's on the nil list?
Annexure II to Notification 10/2025-CT(R) names 134 instruments. The ones a city music shop sells most often:
| Family | Instruments named in Annexure II (examples) |
|---|---|
| Strings | Sitar, sarod, tambura, Saraswati veena, Rudra veena, santoor, sarangi (folk and classical), dilruba, esraj, ektara, swarmandal |
| Wind | Bansuri, venu, shehnai, nadaswaram, pungi, shruti box, Indian harmonium (double reed), harmonium (hand-pumped) |
| Drums | Tabla, mridangam, pakhavaj, dholak, dhol, dholki, kanjira, khol, chenda, thavil, idakka, nagara, tasha, damru |
| Other percussion | Ghatam, ghungroo, khartal, manjeera, morsing, jaltarang, chimpta |
Three conditions sit in that one line of the notification. The instrument has to be indigenous, handmade, and named in the annexure. So:
- A standard violin isn't on the list (only the ektara violin, behala and the one-stringed Pulluvan veena are). It's 9202 at 18%.
- A drum kit, cajon or djembe isn't on the list. It's 9206 at 18%.
- An electronic tanpura, electronic shruti box or electronic tabla isn't handmade in the sense the entry uses, and it produces its sound electrically. In our reading that's 9207 at 18%. We haven't found a CBIC circular on electronic versions of listed instruments.
- Spare parts don't ride on the nil entry. Sitar strings, tabla straps and harmonium reeds sold loose are parts and accessories under 9209, at 18%.
Keep the maker's bill for every nil-rated instrument you stock. If an officer asks whether a tabla pair was handmade, that bill and the maker's details are your answer.
Example: a mixed counter sale. A student buys a handmade tabla pair for Rs 9,000, a padded tabla bag for Rs 1,200 and a tuning hammer for Rs 400. The tabla is nil-rated. The bag (4202) and the hammer (9209) total Rs 1,600 at 18%, so GST is Rs 288. The bill comes to Rs 10,888.
If you also sell sports goods or toys from the same shop, our sports goods GST rates guide and toy shop owners guide have those rates. For speakers and headphones sold alongside home audio, see our electronics shop owners guide.
Do you need GST registration?
It depends on what's on your shelves.
Only nil-rated instruments. Section 23(1)(a) of the CGST Act says a person "engaged exclusively in the business of supplying goods or services or both that are not liable to tax or wholly exempt from tax" isn't liable to registration. A workshop that makes and sells only handmade tablas and dholaks fits. The word that matters is "exclusively". Sell one set of guitar strings and you're out of it.
A mixed shop. Section 22(1) sets the limit at Rs 20 lakh, or Rs 10 lakh in special category States. A supplier "engaged exclusively in the supply of goods" can go up to Rs 40 lakh under Notification 10/2019-Central Tax, but not in Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Puducherry, Sikkim, Telangana, Tripura and Uttarakhand. If you bill repair or tuning work, you supply services too, so the Rs 20 lakh limit applies.
Here's the trap. Aggregate turnover under Section 2(6) includes "exempt supplies", and Section 2(47) says an exempt supply includes one that attracts a nil rate. Your tabla and harmonium sales count toward the limit even though they carry no tax.
Example. A Hyderabad shop sells Rs 14 lakh of guitars and accessories and Rs 9 lakh of handmade Indian instruments in a year, with no repair work. Aggregate turnover is Rs 23 lakh. Telangana opted out of the Rs 40 lakh limit, so the Rs 20 lakh limit applies, and the shop must register even though its taxable sales are only Rs 14 lakh.
Our registration limit guide has the detail, and our GST registration service files the application.
Composition. A shop whose aggregate turnover in the previous year didn't exceed Rs 1.5 crore (Rs 75 lakh in eight hill and north-eastern States) can opt in under Notification 14/2019-Central Tax. A trader pays half a per cent CGST plus half a per cent SGST on "the turnover of taxable supplies of goods and services" (Rule 7, Table Sl. No. 3), so your nil-rated sales don't attract composition tax. You can't take input tax credit, and you can't make inter-State supplies (Section 10(2)(c)), which rules out shipping a guitar to a buyer in another State. Our composition scheme guide has the conditions.
How do you bill taxable and nil sales together?
A registered shop that sells exempt goods issues a bill of supply for them, not a tax invoice (Section 31(3)(c) of the CGST Act). A composition dealer issues a bill of supply for everything. When one customer who isn't registered buys a tabla and a guitar together, Rule 46A of the CGST Rules lets you issue a single "invoice-cum-bill of supply" for both, provided it carries the particulars required for each. Most billing software handles this if each item master has the right HSN code and rate.
Report nil-rated sales in GSTR-1 and GSTR-3B as nil-rated supplies, not as zero-value lines inside your 18% sales. Your GST return filing should show the two streams separately every month.
Reversing common credit under Rule 42
Credit on guitars and keyboards you buy for resale is used only for taxable sales, so you keep it in full. The trouble is common credit: shop rent, your accountant's fees, a billing software subscription, advertising. Section 17(2) restricts credit to the part attributable to taxable supplies. Rule 42 works it out each month:
Credit to reverse (D1) = (exempt supplies in the period / total turnover in the State in the period) x common credit (C2)
Step-by-Step Guide
Working Out Common Credit Reversal for One Month
Total turnover in the State
Taxable sales of Rs 9,00,000 plus nil-rated sales of Rs 3,00,000 = Rs 12,00,000.
Exempt supplies (E)
Handmade tabla, harmonium and sitar sales: Rs 3,00,000.
Common credit (C2)
Shop rent Rs 80,000 and accounting fees Rs 20,000, both at 18%: credit Rs 18,000.
Apply Rule 42
Rs 3,00,000 / Rs 12,00,000 x Rs 18,000 = Rs 4,500. Reverse this in GSTR-3B. You keep Rs 13,500 of the common credit.
Year-end recalculation
Rule 42(2) requires the figure to be worked out again for the whole financial year before the due date of the September return after the year ends. For FY 2026-27 that's your September 2027 GSTR-3B.
Source: CGST Act Section 17(2); CGST Rules 42(1)(h), (i) and 42(2)
Our Rule 42 and 43 ITC reversal guide covers the full formula, including credit used for non-business purposes.
Repairs, tuning and second-hand instruments
Repairs. Restringing a guitar, re-skinning a tabla or tuning a piano at a customer's home is a repair and maintenance service under heading 9987, taxed at 18% (Notification 11/2017-CT(R), S. No. 25). The nil rate on the instrument doesn't carry over to work done on it. If you bill parts separately on the repair job, each part takes its own rate.
Used instruments. Many shops take in second-hand guitars, keyboards and amplifiers. Rule 32(5) of the CGST Rules applies to a person "dealing in buying and selling of second hand goods" where no input tax credit was availed on the purchase. The value of supply is the difference between the selling price and the purchase price, and a negative difference is ignored.
Example. You buy a used acoustic guitar from a student for Rs 10,000 (no GST, no credit) and sell it for Rs 13,000. The value of supply is the Rs 3,000 margin, so GST at 18% is Rs 540, not Rs 2,340 on the full price. If you'd sold it for Rs 9,500, the negative margin is ignored and there's no GST on that sale. Our margin scheme guide explains the conditions.
Income tax for music shop owners
Section 44AD. For FY 2025-26, a resident individual, HUF or partnership firm (not an LLP) can declare 6% of turnover received by bank transfer, UPI or other prescribed digital modes, and 8% of the rest, under Section 44AD of the 1961 Act. The limit is Rs 2 crore, or Rs 3 crore where cash receipts don't exceed 5% of turnover. From 1 April 2026 it's Section 58(2), Table Sl. No. 1 of the 2025 Act. Nil-rated GST sales are still business turnover for income tax, so count the tablas and sitars too.
Example. Turnover for FY 2025-26 is Rs 90,00,000: Rs 70,00,000 by UPI, cards and bank transfer, and Rs 20,00,000 in cash. Deemed profit is 6% of Rs 70,00,000 (Rs 4,20,000) plus 8% of Rs 20,00,000 (Rs 1,60,000), a total of Rs 5,80,000.
Tax audit. Section 44AB doesn't apply to a person who declares profit under Section 44AD(1) (first proviso to Section 44AB). Otherwise accounts need an audit once turnover exceeds Rs 1 crore, or Rs 10 crore where cash receipts and cash payments each stay within 5% (Section 44AB(a) of the 1961 Act; Section 63(1) of the 2025 Act from 1 April 2026). Under Section 58(3) of the 2025 Act, if you claim lower profit than the 6% or 8% figure and your income is above the basic exemption limit, you must keep books and get them audited. Opting out after using the scheme also brings a five-year lock-out (Section 58(7)). Our Section 44AD guide explains it.
Cash on big purchases. A school band order or a grand piano can easily cross Rs 2 lakh. Don't accept Rs 2 lakh or more in cash from one customer in a day, on one bill, or for one event or occasion, except by account payee cheque, bank draft or bank transfer (Section 269ST of the 1961 Act; Section 186 of the 2025 Act). The penalty is equal to the amount received (Section 271DA; Section 451 of the 2025 Act). See our cash transaction limits guide.
Deadline Timeline
Dates Still Open for Music Shops
ITR for audit cases (AY 2026-27)
Belated return (AY 2026-27)
Rule 42 year-end figure for FY 2026-27
Source: Income-tax Act 1961 Sections 139(4) and 234F; CBDT Circular 07/2026; CGST Rule 42(2)
Comparison
Guitar vs Handmade Tabla: How the Rules Differ
| Parameter | Guitar, keyboard, drum kit | Handmade tabla, sitar, harmonium (Annexure II) |
|---|---|---|
| GST rate | 18% (Sch II, S. Nos. 597 to 603) | Nil (10/2025-CT(R) S. No. 161) |
| Document you issue | Tax invoice | Bill of supply, or one invoice-cum-bill of supply for an unregistered buyer |
| Counts toward registration limit? | Yes | Yes (exempt supplies are in aggregate turnover) |
| Composition tax on it | 1% of turnover | None (Rule 7 taxes taxable turnover only) |
| Credit on common costs | Kept for this share | Reversed for this share under Rule 42 |
| Income tax | Business turnover | Business turnover |
Source: CGST Act Sections 2(6), 2(47), 17(2), 23, 31(3)(c); CGST Rules 7, 42, 46A; Notifications 9/2025-CT(R) and 10/2025-CT(R)
Common mistakes music shops make
- Treating every Indian instrument as nil. Only handmade instruments named in Annexure II qualify. Electronic versions, drum kits, cajons and standard violins are 18%.
- Billing tabla straps and sitar strings at nil. Loose parts and accessories are 9209 at 18%.
- Leaving nil sales out of the registration count. Exempt supplies are part of aggregate turnover.
- Keeping all the credit on rent and fees. Once you make nil-rated sales, Rule 42 asks you to reverse a share every month.
- Charging GST on the full price of a used guitar. If you took no credit on the purchase, Rule 32(5) lets you pay on the margin.
- Taking Rs 2 lakh or more in cash for one order. The penalty equals the cash received.
How Tax Garden helps music shop owners
We set up your item masters so every guitar, tabla, string, case and speaker carries the right HSN code and rate, issue bills of supply and invoice-cum-bills where they're needed, and work out your Rule 42 reversal every month. We file GSTR-1 and GSTR-3B through our GST return filing service, keep your books through our accounting and bookkeeping service and file your return through our ITR filing service. Call or WhatsApp us on 9640290977.
Related reading: Gift shop owners guide | Stationery and bookshop owners guide | Electronics shop owners guide | GST invoice rules and format
