HSN chapter guide
Chapter 38 — Miscellaneous chemical products
194 eight-digit tariff lines. Rates below are from the Indian Customs Tariff First Schedule. Use the AI HSN classifier if you only have a product description. Reviewed by the CustomsAI compliance desk · 24 August 2026.
Chapter notes
- This Chapter does not cover: (a) Separate chemically defined elements or compounds with the exception of: (1) Artificial graphite (heading 38.01); (2) Insecticides, rodenticides, fungicides, herbicides, anti-sprouting products and plant-growth regulators, disinfectants and similar products, put up as described in heading 38.08; (3) Products put up as charges for fire-extinguishers or in fire-extinguishing grenades (heading 38.13); (4) Certified reference materials specified in Note 2; (5) Products specified in Note 3 (a) or 3(c); (b) Mixtures of chemicals with foodstuffs or other substances with nutritive value, of a kind used in the preparation of human foodstuffs (generally heading 21.06); (c) Products of heading 24.04; (d) Slag, ash and residues containing metals, arsenic or their mixtures meeting the requirements of Note 3(a) or 3(b) to Chapter 26 (heading 26.20); (e) Medicaments (heading 30.03 or 30.04); or (f) Spent catalysts of a kind used for the extraction of base metals or for the manufacture of chemical compounds of base metals (heading 26.20), spent catalysts for recovery of precious metal (heading 71.12) or catalysts consisting of metals or metal alloys (Section XIV or XV).
- For the purpose of heading 38.22, the expression 'certified reference materials' means reference materials which are accompanied by a certificate which indicates the values of the certified properties, the methods used to determine these values and the degree of certainty associated with each value and which are suitable for analytical, calibrating or referencing purposes. With the exception of the products of Chapter 28 or 29, for the classification of certified reference materials, heading 38.22 shall take precedence over any other heading in the Nomenclature.
- Heading 38.24 includes the following goods which are not to be classified in any other heading of the Nomenclature: (a) Cultured crystals (other than optical elements) weighing not less than 2.5 g each, of magnesium oxide or of the halides of the alkali or alkaline-earth metals; (b) Fusel oil; Dippel's oil; (c) Ink removers put up in packings for retail sale; (d) Stencil correctors, other correcting fluids and correction tapes (other than those of heading 96.12), put up in packings for retail sale; (e) Ceramic firing testers, fusible (for example, Seger cones).
- Throughout the Nomenclature, 'municipal waste' means waste of a kind collected from households, hotels, restaurants, hospitals, shops, offices, etc., road and pavement sweepings, as well as construction and demolition waste. The term 'municipal waste' does not cover: (a) Individual materials or articles segregated from the waste; (b) Industrial waste; (c) Waste pharmaceuticals; or (d) Clinical waste.
Sample 8-digit lines
| HSN | Description | BCD |
|---|---|---|
| 3801 10 00 | Artificial graphite | 2.5% |
| 3801 20 00 | Colloidal or semi-colloidal graphite | 2.5% |
| 3801 30 00 | Carbonaceous pastes for electro-des and similar pastes for furnace linings | 2.5% |
| 3801 90 00 | Other | 2.5% |
| 3802 10 00 | Activated carbon | 7.5% |
| 3802 90 11 | Activated alumina | 7.5% |
| 3802 90 12 | Activated bauxite | 7.5% |
| 3802 90 19 | Other | 7.5% |
| 3802 90 20 | Animal black (for example bone black, ivory black), including spent animal black | 7.5% |
| 3803 00 00 | TALL OIL, WHETHER OR NOT REFINED | 7.5% |
| 3804 00 10 | Lignin sulphonates | 7.5% |
| 3804 00 20 | Concentrated sulphate lye | 7.5% |
| 3804 00 90 | Other | 7.5% |
| 3805 10 10 | Wood turpentine oil and spirit of turpentine | 7.5% |
| 3805 10 20 | Gum turpentine oil | 7.5% |
| 3805 10 30 | Sulphate turpentine oil | 7.5% |
| 3805 90 10 | Terpenic oils produced by the distillation or other treatment of coniferous woods | 7.5% |
| 3805 90 20 | Crude dipentene | 7.5% |
| 3805 90 30 | Sulphite turpentine | 7.5% |
| 3805 90 90 | Other | 7.5% |
| 3806 10 10 | Gum rosin | 7.5% |
| 3806 10 90 | Other | 7.5% |
| 3806 20 00 | Salts of rosin, of resin acids or of derivatives of rosin or resin acids, other than salts of rosin adducts | 7.5% |
| 3806 30 00 | Ester gums | 7.5% |
| 3806 90 10 | Run gums | 7.5% |
| 3806 90 90 | Other | 7.5% |
| 3807 00 10 | Wood tar | 7.5% |
| 3807 00 20 | Wood Tar oils, wood creosote, wood naphtha | 7.5% |
| 3807 00 30 | Vegetable pitch, brewers’ pitch and similar preparations based on rosin, resin acids or vegetable pitch | 7.5% |
| 3808 52 00 | DDT (ISO) (clofenotane (INN)), in packings of a net weight content not exceeding 300 g | 10% |
| 3808 59 00 | Other | 10% |
| 3808 61 00 | In packings of a net weight content not exceeding 300 g | 10% |
| 3808 62 00 | In packings of a net weight content exceeding 300 g but not exceeding 7.5 kg | 10% |
| 3808 69 00 | Other | 10% |
| 3808 91 11 | Aluminium phosphite (for example phostoxin) | 10% |
| 3808 91 12 | Calcium cyanide | 10% |
| 3808 91 13 | D.D.V.P (Dimethyl-dichloro-vinyl- phosphate) | 10% |
| 3808 91 21 | Diaginal | 10% |
| 3808 91 22 | Methyl bromide | 10% |
| 3808 91 23 | Dimethoate, technical grade | 10% |