The GST Council recently made school notebooks to be charged 0% GST (from 22nd Sept 2025) – a welcome move for students and parents.
But when I asked a shopkeeper about lower prices, he smiled and said: “Madam, paper itself has become costlier… how can notebooks be cheaper?”

Here’s the reality:

Paper is taxed at 18% GST, but notebooks are exempt.

Manufacturers can’t claim input credit, so the tax on paper becomes their cost. Add to this rising pulp, fuel, and transport costs – and prices stay firm. This is a classic inverted duty structure – higher tax on inputs, zero tax on outputs.
Solution? A uniform lower GST rate (say 5%) on both paper and notebooks could actually bring down prices. Until then, parents like us may not see the benefit of this GST cut in their kids’ school.