HS Chapter 49: Printed books, newspapers

The First Schedule to the Customs Tariff Act, 1975 heads chapter 49 as “Printed books, newspapers, pictures and other products of the printing industry; manuscripts, typescripts and plans”. Every tariff item in chapter 49 that this dataset carries a duty and a tax rate for, listed by heading so a code can be found by reading rather than by guessing. The rates sit on the code itself: open any item for the standard rate of basic customs duty from the First Schedule to the Customs Tariff Act, 1975, the integrated tax beside it, the surcharge and cess on top with the base each is charged on, and the part a duty-credit scrip can pay.

Reading the duty column

The duty shown is the standard rate in the First Schedule to the Customs Tariff Act, 1975. It is not the whole bill and it is often not the rate a consignment is finally assessed at. On top of it sits the Social Welfare Surcharge at ten per cent of the duty under section 110 of the Finance Act, 2018, then integrated tax on the value plus those duties under section 3(8) of the Customs Tariff Act, 1975, and compensation cess on the same base under section 3(9) where the goods attract it.

Four things are outside every figure in this chapter, and each of them can move a Bill of Entry on its own. An exemption notification, which a great many consignments are assessed under and which this site does not apply. The Agriculture Infrastructure and Development Cess under section 124 of the Finance Act, 2021. A duty the schedule states per unit rather than as a percentage. And an anti-dumping, countervailing or safeguard duty on the line. The calculator works the whole stack.

The run on 18 August 2026 found no Integrated Tax (Rate) notification newer than the ones this dataset already carries, and no disagreement across the 447 duty codes it sampled against ICEGATE. Duty rates change by notification, and a notification can take effect the day it is issued. Confirm against the tariff in force before you file a Bill of Entry.