GST billing for pet shops in India: the complete guide

If you sell pet food, accessories, medicines or grooming in India, GST touches every sale you make. This is the practical version: which HSN code goes on which product, what a valid invoice must contain, when you have to register, what you file and when, and the mistakes that cost pet shops money.

On rates: GST rates and slabs change, and India rationalised its slab structure during 2025. The rates below were correct when this was last reviewed on 11 August 2026, but confirm the current rate against the CBIC notification or your CA before you file. HSN codes, invoice format and filing mechanics are far more stable, and that’s where most of this guide’s value sits.

The three letters, quickly

GST replaced VAT, service tax and excise. What you charge depends on where the customer is:

• CGST + SGST — sale within your own state. The total rate splits evenly between centre and state. An 18% item becomes 9% CGST + 9% SGST.
• IGST — sale to another state. The full rate as a single line.

For a shop with a physical counter, almost everything is CGST + SGST. IGST matters the moment you ship an order to another state.

HSN codes for pet products

The HSN code goes on the invoice and it determines the rate. These are the ones a pet business uses constantly:

What you sell	HSN	Notes
Dog and cat food, prepared	2309	Covers most packaged pet food. The heading is “preparations of a kind used in animal feeding”
Collars, leads, harnesses, saddlery	4201	Leather and other materials
Veterinary medicines	3004	Formulated medicaments, packaged for retail sale
Shampoos and grooming preparations	3307 / 3305	Depends on formulation. Animal toilet preparations often sit under 3307
Plastic bowls, toys, crates	3924 / 3926	Household plastic articles
Rubber and textile toys	9503	Where the item is classified as a toy
Grooming, boarding and daycare services	9993 / 9985	Service accounting codes, not goods HSN
Veterinary services	9993	Consultation by a registered practitioner

Two things people get wrong here.

Treats are not always food. A biscuit-style treat usually falls under 2309 with the rest of the pet food, but confectionery-style products can be classified differently. If you carry a lot of treats, get the classification confirmed once rather than guessing per SKU.

A shampoo is not a medicine. A medicated shampoo dispensed against a prescription may be classifiable differently from a cosmetic grooming shampoo on the shelf. Same bottle shape, different heading.

Rates, as at August 2026

Category	Rate
Prepared pet food (2309)	18%
Pet accessories, collars, leads (4201)	18%
Grooming products and shampoos	18%
Grooming and boarding services	18%
Veterinary medicines (3004)	12%
Veterinary consultation by a registered practitioner	Exempt

That last row matters more than people realise. The consultation is exempt; the medicine you dispense is not. If your vet sees an animal and sends the owner home with a course of tablets, one line on that bill is exempt and the other is taxable at 12%. Billing the whole thing at one rate is one of the most common errors in a mixed clinic-and-retail business, and it is exactly the sort of thing that surfaces in an assessment years later.

Again: verify the current rate before you rely on it. The two-slab rationalisation moved a lot of items, and pet products were among the categories people were searching about.

What a valid tax invoice must contain

Get this wrong and your customer cannot claim input credit, which is how you lose the business customers, breeders and boarding kennels who buy from you in volume.

A tax invoice needs:

1. The word “Tax Invoice”
2. Your name, address and 15-digit GSTIN
3. A serial number, unique within the financial year, unbroken
4. Date of issue
5. Customer name and address, plus their GSTIN if they are registered
6. Place of supply, and the state code, on inter-state sales
7. HSN code per line
8. Description, quantity, unit and taxable value per line
9. Rate and amount of CGST and SGST, or IGST, shown separately
10. Whether tax is payable on reverse charge
11. Signature or digital signature

The serial number rule catches people out. It must be sequential and unbroken for the financial year. If you use one book at the counter and another for wholesale, you need two clearly distinguished series, not two overlapping ones.

How many copies

For goods: three copies, marked Original for Recipient, Duplicate for Transporter, Triplicate for Supplier. For services: two, original and duplicate.

Bill of supply

If you’re on the composition scheme, or you’re selling exempt items only, you issue a bill of supply, not a tax invoice, and you do not show tax separately.

When you must register

• ₹40 lakh turnover for a business supplying goods only, in most states
• ₹20 lakh for services, and for goods in the special category states
• Immediately, at any turnover, if you sell inter-state, sell through an e-commerce operator, or are liable under reverse charge

The e-commerce trigger catches a lot of pet shops. The day you list on a marketplace, the threshold stops protecting you.

Voluntary registration below the threshold is often worth it anyway. Without a GSTIN you cannot claim input credit on your own purchases, and B2B customers will prefer a supplier who can give them a proper tax invoice.

What you file, and when

Return	Covers	Due
GSTR-1	Outward supplies	11th of the following month, monthly filers
GSTR-1 (QRMP)	Outward supplies	13th of the month after the quarter
GSTR-3B	Summary and payment	20th of the following month
CMP-08	Composition scheme	18th of the month after the quarter
GSTR-9	Annual return	31 December following the financial year

QRMP — Quarterly Return, Monthly Payment — is available under ₹5 crore turnover and is what most independent pet shops should be on. You file quarterly but still pay monthly.

Late filing runs at ₹50 per day (₹20 for nil returns), split between CGST and SGST, plus 18% annual interest on tax paid late. It’s capped, but it accrues per return, and it accrues while you are ignoring it.

The composition scheme

Under ₹1.5 crore turnover you can opt for composition: a flat 1% for traders, filed quarterly, with much less paperwork.

The trade-offs are real:

• No input tax credit. You absorb the GST on everything you buy.
• No inter-state sales.
• You cannot charge GST to your customers, so B2B buyers get no credit from you.
• You issue a bill of supply and must display “composition taxable person” on it.

Rough rule: composition suits a small counter-trade shop selling to walk-in pet owners with modest purchases. It suits you badly if you buy a lot of stock (that unclaimed input credit is real money), sell to businesses, or ship out of state.

Input tax credit, and how people lose it

ITC is the GST you paid on purchases, set against the GST you collected. To claim it:

• You hold a valid tax invoice from the supplier
• The goods or services were received
• Your supplier actually filed their GSTR-1, so it appears in your GSTR-2B
• You filed your own return
• You paid the supplier within 180 days, or the credit reverses

That third condition is the one that hurts. Your credit depends on your supplier’s filing discipline, not yours. If a distributor doesn’t file, your credit disappears through no fault of yours. Reconcile your purchases against GSTR-2B every month, and chase the supplier the same month, not at year end when they’ve stopped answering.

You also cannot claim ITC on goods given away as free samples, stock written off or destroyed, or anything used for personal purposes. The bag of food you took home is not a business expense.

Five mistakes that cost pet shops money

1. One rate for the whole bill. Mixed baskets are normal in this trade: food at one rate, a medicine at another, a consultation exempt. Per-line rates, not a blended guess.

2. Broken invoice numbering. A gap in the series is the first thing an officer looks for.

3. Never reconciling GSTR-2B. You are quietly losing input credit every month and you won’t notice until you compare.

4. Treating a discount casually. A discount shown on the invoice reduces taxable value. A discount given afterwards only reduces it if it was agreed before the supply and can be linked to specific invoices. Post-sale “goodwill” discounts usually cannot be deducted.

5. Forgetting e-invoicing and e-way bills. E-invoicing applies above a turnover threshold that has been coming down steadily, so check whether it now catches you. E-way bills are required for consignments above the value limit, which matters if you move stock between branches.

A worked example

A dog food sale, ₹3,200 including tax, sold within your state at 18%:

Taxable value  = 3200 / 1.18   = ₹2,711.86
CGST @ 9%                      = ₹244.07
SGST @ 9%                      = ₹244.07
Invoice total                  = ₹3,200.00

Show it that way on the invoice. Showing “₹3,200 incl. GST” as a single line is not a valid tax invoice, and a business customer cannot claim credit from it.

Doing this without thinking about it

None of the above is difficult. It is just relentless, and it happens at a counter with a queue.

The practical answer is to set the tax treatment once, on the product, and let the till apply it. In Fretso’s retail module, each item carries its HSN and its rate, so a mixed basket of food, a medicine and a groom bills at three different treatments without anyone deciding anything at the counter. Invoices carry the GSTIN, the sequential number, the per-line HSN and the split, because the billing module builds them from the templates you set up once in settings.

At month end, the returns are a report rather than a reconstruction from a drawer of receipts.

Quick answers

What is the GST rate on dog food in India? Prepared pet food under HSN 2309 has been taxed at 18%. Confirm against the current notification before filing, as slabs were rationalised during 2025.

What is the HSN code for pet accessories? 4201 covers collars, leads, harnesses and similar saddlery. Plastic bowls and crates fall under 3924 or 3926, and toys under 9503.

Is veterinary consultation exempt from GST? Consultation by a registered veterinary practitioner is exempt. Medicines dispensed alongside it are not, and should appear as separate lines.

Do I need GST registration for a small pet shop? Above ₹40 lakh turnover for goods in most states, ₹20 lakh for services. Immediately if you sell inter-state or through a marketplace, whatever your turnover.

What is the GST on pet grooming services? Grooming is a service and has been taxed at 18%. Boarding and daycare are treated the same way.

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Last reviewed 11 August 2026. This is general guidance for pet business owners, not tax advice. Rates and thresholds change. Check the current position with your CA or the CBIC before you file.