HSN Code for Clothes, Garments and Textiles

There is no HSN code for "clothes". Apparel is split across Chapter 61 and Chapter 62 of the Customs Tariff on a single criterion that has nothing to do with the price, the brand or the season: whether the fabric is knitted or crocheted (Chapter 61) or not (Chapter 62, in practice woven). Get that one question right and the rest of the classification falls out of a short, predictable list. Get it wrong and every code in your catalogue is wrong by exactly one chapter.

The one question that decides the chapter

Knitted fabric is made by looping a single yarn through itself; woven fabric is made by interlacing warp and weft threads at right angles. Jersey, rib, fleece, interlock and most sportswear fabrics are knitted. Poplin, twill, denim, chiffon, georgette and canvas are woven. The tariff cares about nothing else at the chapter level — not the fibre, not the garment, not the end user.

The practical consequence is that the two chapters are near-mirror images. A men's shirt is 6105 if knitted and 6205 if woven. A women's dress is 6104 if knitted and 6204 if woven. Once you know a garment's heading in one chapter, the other is usually the same last two digits with the leading 61 swapped for 62. If you are new to how the digits are structured, our explainer on how HSN codes work covers the chapter, heading and sub-heading hierarchy.

Chapter 61: knitted and crocheted apparel

Chapter 62: woven apparel

Where the items people actually ask about land

• T-shirt — 6109, knitted, with the eight-digit line set by fibre.
• Shirt — 6205 woven for men's and boys'; 6206 for women's and girls'. A knitted polo shirt goes to 6105/6106 instead.
• Jeans and trousers — 6203 (men's) or 6204 (women's), woven.
• Jacket or blazer — 6203/6204 woven, 6103/6104 knitted. A padded or shell outerwear jacket is 6201/6202 or 6101/6102.
• Sweatshirt, hoodie, cardigan — 6110.
• Kurti — usually classified as a women's blouse or shirt (6106 knitted, 6206 woven), though longer or unlined styles are sometimes taken to 6211 as other garments. The construction decides it.
• Salwar kameez and other ensembles — sold as a matching set, an ensemble falls in the ensemble line of 6103/6104 or 6203/6204.
• Innerwear and hosiery — 6107/6108 or 6207/6208; socks and tights are 6115.

Fabric, made-ups, footwear and headgear

Three neighbouring groups get pulled into apparel catalogues by mistake:

• Fabric by the metre stays in Chapters 50 to 55, organised by fibre: silk (50), wool (51), cotton (52), other vegetable fibres (53), man-made filaments (54) and man-made staple fibres (55). Cutting it does not change the chapter; making it up into an article does.
• Made-up textile articles that are not worn sit in Chapter 63 — blankets (6301), bed and table linen (6302), curtains (6303), and sacks and bags of textile including jute bags (6305). A bedsheet is not apparel.
• Footwear is Chapter 64 and headgear is Chapter 65, both outside the apparel chapters entirely. Leather bags and belts fall in Chapter 42.

Rates, and why value bands matter here

Textiles and apparel are one of the few categories where the rate has historically depended on the value of the item as well as its code — the same shirt at two price points has at times attracted two different rates, with the threshold set per piece. That structure has been revised more than once, most recently in the 2025 rate rationalisation, so this article does not reproduce rate lines.

Check the current entry for your specific eight-digit code against the notification on the CBIC GST portal before you configure a price list, and build your billing so the rate is driven by the item record rather than typed per invoice. For the shape of the slabs themselves, see our guide to the current GST rate slabs.

Getting it onto the invoice and GSTR-1

An apparel catalogue is the worst case for HSN reporting: hundreds of SKUs, a handful of headings, and a value-sensitive rate. Three habits keep it clean.

1. Code at the style level, not the SKU level. Every size and colour of the same style shares a code. If your item master carries a code per SKU, you have hundreds of chances to mistype one.
2. Store knitted-or-woven as a field. It is the field that decides the chapter, it is known at the point the style is created, and it is the one thing a merchandiser can answer reliably.
3. Check how many digits you must report against your current aggregate annual turnover — the requirement scales with turnover, and GSTR-1 Table 12 validates codes rather than accepting free text. Our note on how many HSN digits you must show covers the rules.

The same discipline applies to the inbound side. Garment supply chains run on job-work units and small fabricators, and a supplier whose registration has lapsed will still send you an invoice with a code on it. Checking that a vendor's GSTIN is active and filing before you claim credit against their invoice catches the problem while it is still cheap to fix — see our guide to verifying vendors at onboarding.

Frequently asked questions