GST on Hand Tools & Hardware: A Practical HSN Code Guide for Sellers

Hand tools and basic hardware are some of the most commonly sold, most habitually reordered SKUs on any marketplace — and precisely because they're reordered so often, their HSN classification tends to get set once and never revisited. Here's what actually falls under seven of the codes hardware sellers deal with most.

Seven hand tool & hardware HSN codes

Spanners and wrenches (HSN 8204) — Covers hand-operated spanners and wrenches, including torque meter wrenches, plus interchangeable spanner sockets. Tap wrenches are specifically excluded from this heading. Full breakdown →

Knives and blades (HSN 8211) — Covers hand-held knives with cutting blades, serrated or not, including pruning knives, and their blades. Knives designed for machines or mechanical appliances (heading 8208) are excluded. Full breakdown →

Hand saws and saw blades (HSN 8202) — Covers hand saws and blades for saws of all kinds, including slitting and slotting blades — a hand-tool-specific heading, distinct from powered cutting equipment classified under machinery headings. Full breakdown →

Hand tools catch-all (HSN 8205) — Covers hand tools not elsewhere specified or included — glaziers' diamonds, blow lamps, vices, and clamps. If a hand tool lacks its own dedicated heading elsewhere in Chapter 82, this is usually where it lands by default. Full breakdown →

Padlocks, locks, and their keys (HSN 8301) — Covers padlocks and locks (key, combination, or electrically operated) of base metal, plus clasps and frames incorporating locks, and — notably — keys for any of these, also of base metal. A standalone replacement key shares this code. Full breakdown →

Hand-operated rubber roller — the exception in this list (HSN 8420) — Unlike the other tools here, this specific item is 5%, not 18% — a rate that jumps sharply to 18% the moment the equipment becomes powered (calendering or rolling machines under the same code). Full breakdown →

Metal-cutting machine tools, except lathes (HSN 8459) — Covers machine tools (including way-type unit head machines) for drilling, boring, milling, threading, or tapping by removing metal. Lathes and turning centres are excluded, classified under heading 8458 instead. Full breakdown →

What to check before you file

For most items on this list, the rate is a straightforward 18% — the exception worth remembering is the hand-operated rubber roller at 5%, since it's easy to assume all "hand tools" share one rate when they don't. Beyond rate, the more common error is scope: filing a machine-specific blade under a hand-tool heading, or a lathe under a general machine-tool code that specifically excludes it.

If your product doesn't cleanly match any of the seven codes above, don't force it into the closest one — check whether HSN 8205's catch-all applies, or search the exact product on our HSN code finder before filing.

Hardware catalogs and the "reordered, never re-checked" trap

Hand tools and hardware SKUs tend to sit in a seller's catalog longer, unchanged, than almost any other category — a spanner set or a padlock listing from three years ago is often still live, still selling, and still carrying whatever HSN code was assigned at launch. That's exactly the profile of listing most likely to be running on a stale classification, since nobody revisits a code once the product is selling fine and no notice has arrived. It's worth treating hardware SKUs as due for a periodic recheck precisely because they're the ones least likely to get one on their own.

For the rest of your GST filing calendar, see our GST due dates tracker and marketplace profit calculator, or the full tools & software hub. For the underlying notification text on any entry, the CBIC tax information portal is the authoritative source. For the broader pattern of exclusion clauses across HSN codes generally, see our piece on HSN exclusions sellers miss.