GST and HSN Codes for Optical Shops: Frames, Lenses, Contact Lenses and Solutions

If you run an optical shop in India, you sell four things that sit in four different places in the GST tariff — and since 22 September 2025 they no longer share a rate. Get the classification wrong on a frame-plus-lens sale and you can end up paying 18% on the whole invoice instead of 18% on part of it.

This is the reference I keep for our own shop. It covers what each item is, what code it belongs under, what rate applies, and — the part nobody writes about — how to bill a frame and a lens together when they carry different rates.

The two-minute answer

What changed on 22 September 2025

The 56th GST Council meeting on 3 September 2025 removed the 12% slab entirely. Everything that sat at 12% had to move — either down to 5% or up to 18%.

For our category, the change was implemented through Notification No. 9/2025 – Integrated Tax (Rate) dated 17 September 2025, effective 22 September 2025. Schedule I (5%) now carries the entry:

Corrective spectacles, including goggles for correcting vision — heading 9004

The government's own FAQ on the Council decisions puts it plainly:

"Spectacles and goggles for correcting vision now attract 5% GST (reduced from 12% and 18% respectively), while spectacles and other goggles other than for correcting vision continue to attract GST rate of 18%."

Spectacle lenses and contact lenses under 9001 moved from 12% to 5% in the same round.

If your billing software still shows 12% anywhere in your optical masters, it has not been updated since September 2025. That is the first thing to check after reading this.

Frames (9003) — the one nobody agrees on

Here is the honest position, and it is the reason this page exists.

Search for the GST rate on spectacle frames and you will find confident answers of both 5% and 18%, often on pages updated in 2026. They cannot both be right.

The case for 18%: Heading 9003 covers "frames and mountings for spectacles, goggles or the like, and parts thereof." It contains no sub-heading that distinguishes corrective from non-corrective use — 9003 11 is frames of plastics, 9003 19 is frames of other materials, 9003 90 is parts. The 5% concession in Notification 9/2025 is written against heading 9004, for a corrective spectacle, not for a frame. A bare frame corrects nothing. On a plain reading of the schedule, a frame sold on its own is 18%.

The case for 5%: Frames were at 12% before September 2025. Several trade and news sources reported that everything in the optical group moved from 12% to 5%, frames included, and read the reform's intent as covering the whole vision-correction basket.

Which way to lean while you confirm: the risk here is not symmetric. Under-charging GST means paying the shortfall later out of your own margin, with interest. Over-charging is a conversation with a customer. That asymmetry is worth weighing while you wait for an answer — but it is not a substitute for one.

What to actually do: ask your CA for this in writing, referencing heading 9003 and Notification 9/2025 specifically. Do not take a position off a blog post, this one included. When you get a clear written answer, keep it with your GST file — you will be asked for it eventually.

Lenses (9001) — straightforward, and now cheap

Heading 9001 is where the actual optics live, and this part is settled:

• 9001 30 — Contact lenses, 5%
• 9001 40 — Spectacle lenses of glass, 5%
• 9001 50 — Spectacle lenses of other materials, 5%

"Other materials" is where nearly all of your stock actually sits: CR-39, polycarbonate, Trivex, 1.60 and 1.67 high-index. Coatings do not change the classification — an anti-reflective, blue-cut or photochromic lens is still a spectacle lens under 9001 50.

Note that 9001 also contains 9001 10 (optical fibres) and 9001 90 (other optical elements) at 18%. If your purchase invoice from a lens supplier shows 9001 90, question it — it is usually a data-entry habit, and it will inflate your input credit reconciliation.

Finished spectacles (9004) — where your invoice description does the work

This is the heading most opticians misunderstand.

Heading 9004 covers "spectacles, goggles and the like, corrective, protective or other." Its sub-headings are 9004 10 (sunglasses) and 9004 90 (other). Notice what is missing: there is no separate sub-code for corrective versus non-corrective.

So the 5% versus 18% split inside 9004 is not decided by the code you type. It is decided by the fact of whether the article corrects vision — and the only evidence of that fact on your paperwork is the description you write on the invoice and the prescription record behind it.

Practical consequences:

• A fitted prescription spectacle: 9004, 5%. Write "Prescription spectacle — Rx: R -1.75 / L -2.00" on the line, not "Spectacle".
• Ready-made reading glasses with a stated power: corrective, 5%.
• Prescription sunglasses (powered tint): corrective, 5%.
• Plano sunglasses, however expensive: 18%.
• Zero-power blue-light or "computer" glasses: 18%. These are sold as protective, not corrective. A lot of shops bill them at 5% because they look like spectacles and come from the same rack. They are not corrective and the rate is 18%.
• Safety goggles, swimming goggles: 18%.

Your prescription record is not just clinical housekeeping. Under GST it is the evidence that supports a 5% line, and it is what an officer will ask to see.

Selling a frame and a lens together — the expensive mistake

This is the question every optical shop actually has, and it is the one the rate tables skip.

A customer picks a ₹4,000 frame and ₹2,500 lenses. You fit them. What do you charge?

There are three ways to bill it, and they produce three different tax amounts.

Option 1 — Two separate lines, each at its own rate

Frame — Titan Eyeplus TW1234      HSN 9003    ₹4,000   @ 18%   ₹720
Lens — CR-39 AR, R -1.75/L -2.00  HSN 9001 50 ₹2,500   @  5%   ₹125
                                             ─────────────────────
                                  Taxable ₹6,500      GST ₹845
                                  Invoice total       ₹7,345

Clean, defensible, and what most well-run shops do. Each item carries its own classification and rate.

Option 2 — One line as a fitted corrective spectacle

Prescription spectacle (frame + lens fitted)
R -1.75 / L -2.00                 HSN 9004    ₹6,500   @  5%   ₹325
                                  Invoice total       ₹6,825

The argument: what you supplied is not a frame and a lens, it is a single new commercial article — a corrective spectacle — which is exactly what heading 9004 describes. Under Section 8(a) of the CGST Act, a composite supply that is naturally bundled is taxed at the rate of the principal supply, and the principal supply here is a corrective spectacle at 5%.

It is a real argument and it saves the customer ₹520 on this sale. It also requires that you genuinely supply a fitted, glazed spectacle, that your stock records show the frame and lens consumed into a finished good, and that you can defend it. Take this route only with written advice.

Option 3 — One lump price with no breakup

Spectacle                                     ₹6,500   @  ?

Do not do this. Two items at different rates, sold for a single price, not established as naturally bundled, is the textbook definition of a mixed supply under Section 2(74). And Section 8(b) says a mixed supply is taxed at the rate of the component attracting the highest rate — 18% on the entire ₹6,500, or ₹1,170.

That is ₹325 of avoidable tax versus Option 1, on one pair of glasses. Across a shop doing thirty pairs a week it is real money, and it happens purely because the billing screen only offered one line.

The rule: never let a frame and a lens leave your shop on a single un-broken line. If your software forces it, that is a software problem with a rupee cost attached.

Contact lens solutions and accessories

A frequent error: treating lens care solution as a 5% medical item because it goes in someone's eye.

It does not sit in Chapter 90 at all. Sterile contact lens care solution is classified under HSN 3307 90 20 — Chapter 33, cosmetics and toilet preparations — at 18%.

The same applies to most of your counter accessories: cases, chains, cleaning cloths, lens sprays, screwdriver kits. Each follows its own chapter and almost all of them land at 18%. They are small-ticket items, but they are also high-frequency, and a wrong master rate on a ₹150 solution repeated four hundred times a year is a reconciliation headache you do not need.

Eye testing charges

If you charge separately for an eye examination, the treatment depends on who performs it and under what registration. Health care services provided by a clinical establishment or an authorised medical practitioner are exempt under the services exemption notification — but whether a retail optical shop's in-store refraction qualifies depends on your registration, who conducts the test, and how the charge is presented.

I am deliberately not giving you a number here. If you bill eye tests separately, this one is worth twenty minutes with your CA, because getting it wrong in either direction is awkward: charging GST on an exempt service annoys customers, and not charging on a taxable one accumulates quietly.

Most shops sidestep it by not charging separately for the test at all.

A checklist for your billing masters

Run through this once and you are done for the year:

1. No item in your masters is still at 12%. That slab no longer exists.
2. Every product has an HSN code stored against it, not just a rate. If your turnover crosses the threshold, HSN is mandatory on the invoice.
3. Lenses are on 9001 40 or 9001 50, not 9001 90.
4. Frames sit on 9003 at whatever rate your CA has confirmed in writing.
5. Corrective and non-corrective 9004 items are separate masters — prescription spectacles at 5%, sunglasses and zero-power at 18%. Same heading, different rate, so they cannot share one master.
6. Contact lens solution is 3307 90 20 at 18%, not a Chapter 90 item.
7. Your invoice template can print two lines with two different rates and shows the HSN column. Test it with a real frame-plus-lens sale before you trust it.
8. Prescription details print on the invoice line for every 5% corrective sale.

Point 7 is the one that catches people. Plenty of general-purpose billing software handles multi-rate invoices fine in theory and then quietly rounds or merges the tax breakup on the printed copy. Bill one test sale, print it, and read it.

FAQ

What is the HSN code for spectacle frames? Heading 9003 — specifically 9003 11 for plastic frames, 9003 19 for frames of other materials, and 9003 90 for parts and mountings.

What is the GST rate on prescription glasses in India? A fitted corrective spectacle falls under heading 9004 at 5%, effective 22 September 2025 under Notification 9/2025 – Integrated Tax (Rate). Non-corrective eyewear under the same heading remains at 18%.

Is GST on contact lenses 5% or 12%? 5%. Contact lenses under 9001 30 moved from 12% to 5% on 22 September 2025 when the 12% slab was removed.

What GST applies to sunglasses? 18%, under 9004 10 — unless the sunglasses carry a corrective prescription, in which case they are a corrective spectacle at 5%.

Do zero-power blue-light glasses get 5%? No. They do not correct vision, so they attract 18% even though they sit in the same heading as prescription spectacles.

Can I bill a frame and lens at a single 5% rate? Possibly, as a composite supply with a corrective spectacle as the principal supply — but only with written advice from your CA and stock records that support it. What you must not do is bill a single lump price with no breakup, because that risks being treated as a mixed supply and taxed entirely at 18%.

Rates verified against Notification No. 9/2025 – Integrated Tax (Rate) and the Press Information Bureau FAQ on the 56th GST Council meeting, as at September 2026. The classification of standalone frames under heading 9003 is disputed between sources; confirm your position with your CA.