The 56th GST Council meeting, chaired by Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on September 3, 2025, has rolled out Next-Gen GST reforms aimed at easing the tax burden on households and supporting small businesses. Announced just ahead of Diwali, these sweeping reforms are also expected to significantly benefit students by making learning essentials more affordable.
As per the new structure, exercise books, graph books, laboratory notebooks, and atlases, along with basic stationery items like pencils, erasers, crayons, and sharpeners, will now attract 0% GST. Additionally, items such as geometry boxes, colour boxes, and school cartons have been shifted from the 12% slab to 5%, further reducing costs for families.
New GST Rates on Study Materials
While formal education remains completely tax-free, covering schools, colleges, universities, and NSDC-approved vocational institutions, coaching classes, private tuition, and online courses will continue to be taxed at 18%, keeping them outside the ambit of exemptions.
The reforms also extend across multiple sectors, including agriculture, healthcare, MSMEs, and labour-intensive industries, creating a broader impact on the economy. The new two-slab GST system (5% and 18%) will come into effect from September 22, 2025.
Introduced in 2017, the Goods and Services Tax (GST) is India’s most comprehensive indirect tax reform, and the latest changes are expected to align with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Independence Day assurance of reducing the tax burden on common households.