Electrical Items HSN Code 2026: Wire, Switch, MCB & LED

Accountune ships a pre-loaded database of 10,000+ HSN and SAC codes with current GST 2.0 rates. It suggests the code when you add a product and applies the linked rate automatically, so a bill carrying wire at 18% and LED panels at 5% splits on its own. Free plan at ₹0, paid plans from ₹799 a year.

Electrical goods sit across three chapters rather than one. Chapter 85 covers wires, switches, MCBs, distribution boards, motors and transformers, Chapter 84 covers fans, and Chapter 94 covers lighting fittings.

The rate on almost all of them is 18% in 2026 under GST 2.0 effective 22 September 2025. LED lighting is the exception, reduced to 5% from the withdrawn 12% slab.

Over 12,000 Indian shops bill on Accountune, including hardware, electrical and electronics retailers, and the rate master is kept current so a withdrawn slab never sits on a live invoice.

The free Accountune HSN Code Finder returns the code and current 2026 rate for any electrical item by name with no signup, and those codes carry straight into Accountune billing.

Prakash runs an electrical shop in Ludhiana. Wire on the left wall, switches and modular plates behind the counter, fans stacked at the back, and a lighting section he added three years ago because contractors kept asking. That lighting section is now a fifth of his turnover.

Through the whole of last winter he billed LED panel lights and downlighters at 18%, the same rate as everything else on the shelf, because that is what his rate list said and nobody had told him otherwise. A contractor doing a six-floor project finally queried a line on a large order. The lights should have been at 5%. On that one project it was a difference of several thousand rupees, collected from the customer and paid to the government.

The tax was not lost. It was collected from customers who did not owe it, on every lighting bill for months, and getting it back meant a refund application rather than a correction.

Illustrative composite of real Accountune customers. Names and details have been changed.

An electrical shop looks like a single-rate business and is not. Almost everything in it is 18%, which lulls a counter into applying one rate to the whole bill, and then the lighting section quietly breaks the assumption. Accountune is a cloud-based GST billing and accounting software built in Jaipur since 2017, used by 12,000+ Indian small businesses, and its HSN database applies the correct code and rate to each line automatically. This guide lists the electrical items HSN code and GST rate for everything an electrical shop, hardware store or contractor actually sells, from house wire to LED panels.

What is the HSN code for electrical items in 2026?

Quick answer: There is no single electrical items HSN code. Wires and cables are 8544, switches and sockets 8536, distribution boards and switchboards 8537, motors 8501 and transformers 8504, all at 18% GST. Fans are 8414 at 18% and sit in Chapter 84. LED lamps and lighting fittings are the exception at 5%.

The first thing to fix is the idea that the electrical items HSN code lives entirely in Chapter 85. Chapter 85 is titled electrical machinery and equipment, and it does carry the core of the shop: conductors, switchgear, protection devices, motors and transformers. But two of the highest-volume items in an electrical shop are not in it.

A fan is a mechanical appliance for moving air with a self-contained motor, so it sits in Chapter 84 with pumps and compressors. A finished lighting fitting is a lamp, so it sits in Chapter 94 with furniture and luminaires. Both are electrical in every practical sense and neither is in the electrical chapter.

The second thing to fix is the rate assumption. The GST rate on electrical items is 18% almost everywhere, and it is 5% on lighting. That single exception is where the money leaks, because it runs in the direction that hurts the customer rather than the return.

For a shop handling wire, switchgear and lighting on the same counter, hardware store billing software that stores the correct code per item bills each line at its own rate on the same invoice.

Full electrical items HSN code list 2026

Here is the working electrical items HSN code list for a shop, with the wider basket and current rates.

The shape of this table is the point. Fourteen lines at 18% and one category at 5%, sitting in the middle of the shop, sold on the same bill as everything else.

There is a second observation worth making. Three of these lines are not electrical goods at all in tariff terms. Conduit pipe is plastics, junction boxes are plastics, and insulation tape is plastics. They are 18% like the rest, so nothing goes wrong on the invoice total, but they report separately in the HSN summary and belong in their own lines in the item master.

Wire HSN code 8544 and what it does not cover

Wire is the highest-volume item in most electrical shops, and the wire HSN code is the simplest classification in the whole catalogue.

Heading 8544 covers insulated wire, cable and other insulated electric conductors, whether or not fitted with connectors, at 18% GST. House wiring cable, flexible copper wire, armoured cable, submersible cable, coaxial cable and multi-core control cable all sit here.

The heading does not split by the property traders care about. Core count, strand count, square millimetre size, copper against aluminium, PVC against XLPE insulation: none of these moves the item out of 8544. A 1.0 sq mm single-core house wire and a four-core armoured aluminium cable share a heading and a rate.

Two boundaries matter in practice.

Bare conductor is not 8544. Uninsulated copper or aluminium wire, bus bar and earthing strip are articles of copper or aluminium in Chapters 74 and 76 respectively. The insulation is what puts a conductor into 8544. An electrical shop that sells earthing strip alongside cable is selling from two different chapters.

Data and USB cable overlaps with the mobile trade. A USB or data cable is also 8544, and if that is the main line of business, the mobile accessories HSN code guide covers that basket in full with its own rate notes. For an electrical shop, 8544 means power and control cable.

Copper scrap deserves a mention because almost every electrical shop sells it. Copper waste and scrap falls under 7404 and is a separate transaction from the wire business, with its own reporting. It is not a stock write-off and it should not disappear into a miscellaneous income line.

Switch HSN code 8536: socket, MCB and the whole family

The switch HSN code carries the widest range of physically different products in the shop, and it catches traders out because the items look nothing like each other.

Heading 8536 covers electrical apparatus for switching or protecting electrical circuits, or for making connections to or in circuits, for a voltage not exceeding 1,000 volts, at 18% GST.

That single sentence covers all of the following: modular switches, sockets, plugs, plug tops, holders, bell push, dimmers, fuses and fuse bases, MCBs, RCCBs, RCBOs, isolators, relays, contactors, terminal blocks and connectors.

Traders often assume that a protection device like an MCB must be classified differently from a light switch, because one is safety equipment and one is a fitting. In tariff terms they do the same job, which is switching or protecting a circuit under 1,000 volts. Both are 8536.

The 1,000 volt threshold is the real boundary in this heading. Switchgear rated above 1,000 volts moves to 8535 instead. For a retail electrical shop this rarely comes up, since domestic and light commercial switchgear sits well below the threshold, but a dealer supplying industrial panels or HT equipment needs the distinction because it is a different heading even though the rate is the same.

Modular plates and mounting boxes are worth a note. A plastic modular plate sold with the switch is normally billed with it, but a plate or box sold separately as an accessory is a plastics article under 3926. Metal boxes are in the iron and steel chapter. All 18%, all reported separately.

Distribution board, panel and 8537

Heading 8537 covers boards, panels, consoles, desks and cabinets equipped with two or more devices of heading 8535 or 8536, for electric control or distribution of electricity, at 18% GST.

The wording contains the test. An empty enclosure is not 8537. A board becomes 8537 when it is equipped with two or more switching or protection devices. So a distribution board sold as a bare metal box is one product and a populated DB with MCBs fitted is another.

In shop practice this means:

A bare DB enclosure is classified by its material, metal or plastic, not as a distribution board.

A populated DB, MCB box with devices fitted, or a control panel is 8537.

Loose MCBs sold to fill it are 8536.

The rate is 18% throughout, so a dealer who gets this wrong is not under-collecting. The reason to get it right is that a populated panel and its loose components are separate products in the HSN summary, and a panel builder selling assembled boards under a component code is describing its own business incorrectly in its returns.

Fans are Chapter 84, not 85

This is the classification most electrical dealers are surprised by, and it is worth stating plainly.

Fans fall under heading 8414 at 18% GST. The heading covers air and vacuum pumps, gas compressors and fans, together with ventilating hoods incorporating a fan. Ceiling fans, table fans, pedestal fans, wall fans, exhaust fans and industrial fans all sit here.

Within the heading, the eight-digit lines split by fan type. Table fans, ceiling fans, pedestal fans and wall fans each have their own tariff item under the 8414 51 group. A shop billing at four digits does not need to choose between them. A shop above ₹5 crore turnover reporting six digits does.

The rate is 18% for every powered fan, regardless of size, sweep, wattage, brand or whether it is domestic or industrial. There is no exempt or concessional fan. The 5% entries that appear near this heading in the tariff relate to hand-operated pumps and not to electric fans, which is the source of the occasional claim that some fans are 5%. They are not.

The practical consequence of fans being in Chapter 84 is small at the counter and real in the returns. A shop that has mapped every product to a Chapter 85 code because the shop is called an electrical shop will have its entire fan turnover reported under the wrong chapter in the GSTR-1 HSN summary.

LED lighting at 5%: the one rate that is different

This is the section that matters most commercially, because it is the only place in an electrical shop where a wrong rate takes money from the customer.

LED lamps and LED lighting fittings attract 5% GST in 2026. Under GST 2.0 effective 22 September 2025, lighting moved down from the withdrawn 12% slab to 5%. Everything else on the shelf stayed at 18%.

The classification splits across two headings, and this trips up even the pages that get the rate right.

The LED light HSN code splits in two. Heading 8539 covers standalone lamps, meaning the light source itself. LED bulbs and LED lamps sit here, under the 8539 52 group in the current tariff structure. Filament and discharge lamps are also in 8539.

Heading 9405 covers finished luminaires and lighting fittings, where the light source is part of a complete product. LED panel lights, downlighters, ceiling fittings, wall lights, street light fittings, flood lights, table lamps and illuminated signs sit here. Chapter 94 is furniture and lighting, not electrical machinery.

The distinction is whether you are selling a light source or a light fitting. An LED bulb screwed into an existing holder is 8539. An LED panel that is itself the fitting is 9405.

Two errors are live on this topic right now and both cost real money.

The first is billing lighting at 18%. This is the Prakash error. It is the most expensive mistake in the shop because it is an overcharge on every single lighting invoice, and the customer pays it.

The second is showing lighting at 12%. A well-ranked LED classification guide, updated in mid-2026, still states that most LED fixtures are taxed at 12% and decorative lamps at 18%. The 12% slab was withdrawn on 22 September 2025. It does not exist for any product.

The confusion is worse than a single stale page. The top-ranking electrical HSN guide on this topic carries lighting at three different rates in one document: its summary table shows 9405 at 5%, every one of its detailed lighting lines shows 18%, and a handful show 12%. A dealer reading that page cannot arrive at an answer, because the page does not contain one.

Components are a separate question and should not be assumed into the 5%. LED drivers, control gear and modules are classified on their own terms rather than following the finished lamp, so confirm those individually rather than applying the lighting rate across the whole lighting purchase invoice.

Motors, transformers, inverters and pumps

The back half of an electrical shop carries heavier goods, and these are cleanly classified.

Electric motors and generators fall under 8501 at 18%. Single-phase and three-phase motors, alternators and generating sets are here.

Transformers, static converters and inductors fall under 8504 at 18%. This heading is broader than it sounds. Distribution and control transformers, voltage stabilisers, battery chargers, inverters and UPS units are all static converters or transformers in tariff terms and sit in 8504.

Water pumps are 8413, not 8501. A submersible or monoblock pump is a liquid pump with a motor attached, and the pump heading takes it. The motor sold on its own is 8501. This is a genuine split in a shop that sells both, and both are 18%.

Batteries are 8507 at 18%, covering lead-acid inverter batteries and the rest.

A note on inverters, because the word does two jobs in Indian retail. A home inverter with a battery is a static converter under 8504. A solar inverter is also 8504 but solar equipment carries its own rate treatment under the renewable energy entries, so a dealer with a solar line should confirm that separately rather than assuming the general 18%.

Conduit, tape, boxes and the plastics that hide in an electrical bill

A wiring job is half conductor and half plastics, and the plastics half is almost always misclassified because it does not feel like a separate category.

PVC conduit pipe, bends, couplers and fittings fall under 3917 at 18%, the same heading as plumbing pipe. Conduit is a plastic tube, and the tariff does not care what runs inside it.

Junction boxes, plastic enclosures, saddles, clips and casing-capping fall under 3926 at 18% as other articles of plastics.

PVC insulation tape falls under 3919 at 18%, as self-adhesive plastic tape.

Every one of these is 18%, which is precisely why nobody checks them. The invoice total is right whichever code is used, so the error is invisible at the counter and shows up only when a GSTR-1 HSN summary reports a shop's entire conduit and accessory turnover under a cable code. If a buyer's accountant is reconciling line descriptions against codes, that is where the query comes from.

Metal conduit and GI pipe are a different matter again, sitting in the iron and steel chapter. The hardware HSN code guide covers pipes, fittings and fasteners in full, and the tiles and sanitaryware guide covers the bathroom side of the same contractor order.

What GST 2.0 changed for electrical goods

GST 2.0 replaced the old five-slab structure with 0%, 5%, 18% and 40%, withdrawing 12% and 28% entirely.

For the electrical trade the GST rate on electrical items moved in two directions, and not at all in the middle.

Lighting came down. LED lamps and fittings moved from 12% to 5%, the single biggest change for any shop with a lighting section.

Large appliances came down too. Air conditioners and large televisions moved from 28% to 18%, which matters to dealers who carry both electrical goods and white goods. The electronics and mobile GST rate list covers that side.

The core electrical range did not move. Wire, switchgear, DBs, motors, transformers and fans were at 18% before 22 September 2025 and are at 18% after. A dealer who only sells the core range saw no change at all, which is exactly why so many rate lists in this trade were never updated, and why the lighting section is still being billed at the old figure in shops across the country.

The 40% slab is for sin and luxury goods. No electrical item goes there. If a rate list shows 28% on any electrical product, it predates September 2025 and is overcharging. The GST 2.0 rate changes guide covers the full restructure, and the GST calculator applies the current slabs if you need to check a figure quickly.

Metre, coil, bundle: how wire is actually billed

Wire is sold in three units at once and this is where taxable value goes wrong in an electrical shop.

A standard house wire coil is 90 metres. A bundle is commonly ten coils, so 900 metres. Contractors ask the rate per metre or per coil depending on the size of the job, the godown counts coils and bundles, and a cut length off a part-used coil has to come out of the same stock.

Handled by hand, the error is not in the tax rate. It is in the quantity and therefore the taxable value, and a wrong taxable value carries a wrong tax with it automatically. Cut lengths are the worst offender, because a coil sold in four pieces to four customers has to reconcile back to one coil in stock.

Accountune supports multi-unit pricing with metre, coil and bundle as linked units, so wire can be quoted per metre and issued from coil stock with the conversion applied by the system. The HSN and rate stay attached to the item through every unit. Multi-location stock tracking covers the counter-and-godown split that most electrical shops run, since fast-moving sizes sit at the counter and full bundles sit in the back.

Two more mechanics matter in this trade. Contractor credit is the norm rather than the exception, so per-customer ledgers with limits and WhatsApp reminders do more work here than in most retail. And orders above ₹50,000 need an e-way bill, which a single contractor lifting wire, DBs and lights for one floor crosses easily.

HSN digits, GSTR-1 summary and the five common mistakes

Digit requirements depend on turnover in the preceding financial year. Up to ₹5 crore, four digits on B2B invoices. Above ₹5 crore, six digits. Four digits means 8544 or 8536. Six means choosing the sub-heading, which for fans and lighting is where the product type actually matters.

Table 12 of GSTR-1 requires HSN-wise details from all registered taxpayers, so whatever code sits against each item in the billing system is what appears in the return.

The five mistakes that show up most often in this trade:

Billing LED lighting at 18%. It is 5%. This is an overcharge to the customer on every lighting bill.

Showing lighting at 12%. The slab is withdrawn. Lighting is 5%.

Putting fans under a Chapter 85 code. Fans are 8414 in Chapter 84.

Filing conduit, tape and boxes under a cable code. They are 3917, 3919 and 3926.

Treating a populated DB as a component. A board with two or more devices fitted is 8537, not 8536.

There is a sixth mistake that sits underneath the other five: copying codes from an online lookup database without reading the description against the product. Those databases are widely out of date and, in places, plainly scrambled. On one of the most visible electrical HSN pages today, a switchgear code carries the description of a pocket lighter, a winding wire code carries the name of an industrial chemical, a cable code is labelled as battery scrap, and a lighting code is described as a ready-to-assemble greenhouse. Several cable lines on that same page still show 28%, a slab that no longer exists. A code copied from a table like that will look plausible on an invoice and be wrong in the return.

None of these is difficult once the item master is right, which is the whole point. The classification decision is made once per product, not once per invoice. When you add an item in Accountune, the software suggests the code from its database and applies the linked rate, so a bill carrying wire, a DB, two fans and six LED panels splits into 18% and 5% lines without anyone deciding at the counter. The software is fully cloud-based, so the rate master stays current across the counter, the godown phone and the owner's laptop without a reinstall. This guide is one of a set, and the full HSN code list for 2026 covers rates for every other shop category.

Get every line on the electrical bill right

The electrical items HSN code is not one code and the rate is not one number. Wire is 8544, switchgear 8536, boards 8537, motors 8501, transformers 8504 and fans 8414, all at 18%. LED lamps and fittings are 5%, and that single exception is the one that takes money from your customer every time it is billed wrong.

Set each item once with its own code and every mixed order splits correctly on its own. Check any electrical item now in the free Accountune HSN Code Finder, and Accountune's cloud-based billing keeps those codes applied automatically, updated for GST 2.0, with a free plan at ₹0 and paid plans from ₹799 a year. Start with your wire, fan and lighting lines, and let the rest of the catalogue follow.