GST Rate on Job Work for Garments
GSTZone Desk · Updated 2026
Short answer
Job work carried out on textiles and textile products, including garments, is taxed at a concessional 5% GST — lower than the standard 18% rate that applies to most other job-work services.
In detail
Job work in general — where one business processes goods belonging to another, without owning them — is taxed at 18% by default. Textiles and garments are a specific carve-out from that default, notified at 5% instead.
This concession exists because the textile sector was running into an inverted-duty problem: raw fabric and yarn are often taxed higher than finished garments, and adding a full 18% job-work charge on top made the accumulated credit pile-up worse. Cutting job-work to 5% for this specific chain eased that pressure.
The lower rate is tied to the nature of the goods being processed, not to the size of the job worker — a small tailoring unit and a large garment-processing factory both get the 5% rate as long as the underlying goods are textiles or textile products.
GSTZone tip
If you run a job-work unit that handles both textiles and non-textile goods, don’t apply 5% across the board by habit — check each job order against what’s actually being processed, since non-textile job work reverts to the standard 18%.
Related questions
Does this 5% rate apply to dyeing and printing units too?+
Yes — dyeing, printing, and similar processing services performed as job work on textile fabrics fall under the same concessional textile job-work entry.
Who pays the GST — the job worker or the principal manufacturer?+
The job worker charges GST on their job-work invoice to the principal (the goods owner); it isn’t a reverse-charge arrangement.
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