Six digits is not an HS code

Most exporter websites publish six-digit HS codes. Six digits is the internationally harmonised part — the bit every country shares. India classifies at eight, and so do most destination markets, and the last two digits are where the real decisions live.

Here is why it matters to a buyer, with examples from our own catalogue.

The same product, three different codes

Turmeric is a single heading at six digits: 0910.30. At eight, the Indian tariff splits it by form — fresh, dried, and powder each have their own line, and powder is 0910 30 30.

Garlic goes further. Dehydrated garlic flakes, garlic powder and whole dried cloves each have a separate eight-digit line. Quote the flake code for a powder order and the paperwork contradicts the goods.

The trap that catches people: "of seed quality"

Under coriander, cumin, fennel, sesame and mustard, the Indian tariff has a sub-line ending in 10 and another ending in 90. The 10 line means *of seed quality* — seed for **sowing**.

Food-grade and oil-grade shipments belong on the 90 line. It is an easy mistake to make from a code list, it is common in trade data, and it puts your consignment in a category with entirely different rules.

Sometimes the last two digits change the chapter

Fruit powder is the clearest case. Plain ground dried fruit is powder of a Chapter 8 product, which heading 1106 30 covers in terms. A powder spray-dried onto a carrier such as maltodextrin is a food preparation, and that belongs in 2106 90.

Same fruit, same factory, different classification — decided by one ingredient. The duty treatment and the import checks differ accordingly.

Whole and split can share a code

Working the other way: heading 0713 reads "dried leguminous vegetables, shelled, **whether or not skinned or split**". So urad and urad dal sit on the same eight-digit line, and so do moong and moong dal. The eight-digit breakouts there are by botanical variety — kabuli against desi — not by form.

Buyers sometimes ask us for a separate code for the dal. There isn't one, and using the residual "split" line would be wrong.

What we publish

Every product page on this site now carries its eight-digit ITC(HS) code, and where a product spans more than one tariff line — a masala blend, a fruit sold as slices and as powder, a spice sold whole and ground — the code is shown **per form**, next to the form it belongs to.

Two things worth saying plainly. First, a classification is the importer's responsibility in their own market, and the destination's eight digits may differ from India's even though the first six always match. Second, where the tariff genuinely does not decide a question, we say so rather than publishing a confident number.

If your broker reads a code differently from ours, tell us. We would rather reconcile it before the shipping bill is filed than argue about it afterwards.