Which HSN Code Applies to Steam Hose Pipe When You Buy or Export It

The HSN code for steam hose pipe, and where it changes

A wire-braided rubber steam hose has one home in the tariff, but it splits in two the moment couplings go on, and it moves chapter entirely when the hose is stainless steel or PTFE. Here is how to read it before you raise an invoice or a shipping bill.

Flexihose rubber steam hose: EPDM tube and cover · high-tensile brass-coated steel wire braid · one braid 145 PSI / 10 BAR, 1/2" to 2" · two braid 250 PSI / 17 BAR, 1/2" to 1-1/4" · made-up assemblies on request

A purchase order for steam hose needs an HSN code as well as a bore and a pressure grade. The code matters twice: once on the GST invoice, and again on the shipping bill if the hose leaves India. We make wire-braided rubber steam hose at Bhiwadi, so we checked the codes against the primary sources rather than repeating what a marketplace listing says. This guide covers the code for rubber steam hose with and without fittings, how it changes for stainless steel and PTFE hose, the GST rate on rubber hose, and the export paperwork notes that follow from the code.

The HSN code for rubber steam hose with and without fittings

India’s GST rate notifications do not invent their own codes. Notification 9/2025-Integrated Tax (Rate) says that “tariff item”, “sub-heading”, “heading” and “Chapter” mean the entries in the First Schedule to the Customs Tariff Act, 1975, and that the Schedule’s interpretation rules and notes apply (Notification 9/2025-IT (Rate), copy on CBIC’s server). That schedule follows the international Harmonized System for its first six digits, so the HSN code on a GST invoice and the HS code on a shipping bill start from the same place.

For rubber hose, that place is heading 40.09: tubes, pipes and hoses of vulcanised rubber other than hard rubber, with or without their fittings. The heading then splits twice, first by what the rubber is reinforced with, then by whether fittings are attached (WCO HS 2022, Chapter 40).

Our steam hose is built from a heat-resistant EPDM tube, one or two braids of high-tensile brass-coated steel wire, and an EPDM cover. The only reinforcement is metal, which puts it in the 4009.2 group. The table shows every subheading under 40.09 so you can see why the neighbours do not fit.

1. Steam hose in coils or cut lengths, with no ends fitted: 4009.21

A length of wire-braided rubber hose that leaves the works with bare ends is metal-reinforced hose without fittings. That is subheading 4009.21, whether it is one braid or two, 1/2" or 2". Bore, pressure grade and length do not change the subheading; they belong in the invoice description.

2. Made-up assemblies with couplings attached: 4009.22

We supply made-up assemblies with interlocking or crimped steam couplings fitted on request. Once the fittings are part of the hose, the subheading text that matches is “with fittings”, 4009.22. The heading itself names joints, elbows and flanges as examples of fittings, so hose with its fittings attached stays inside the same heading.

3. Couplings bought or shipped separately

Loose couplings in a separate carton are not hose. They are classified on their own, under the heading for what they are made of and what they do, and that heading is outside 40.09. We have not set a code for loose couplings here because it depends on the coupling’s material and design. Ask your broker to classify them as a separate line.

4. Rubber hose with a textile braid instead of wire

Some hose sold as steam hose is braided with textile yarn. Rubber hose reinforced only with textile falls under 4009.31 or 4009.32, not 4009.2. We braid our steam hose with steel wire because textile loses tension under repeated heat cycling, so this pair does not apply to our product, but it is worth checking on a competing quote. Hose made of textile, rather than rubber reinforced with it, is a different heading altogether, 59.09, which Chapter 40’s notes exclude.

5. The eight-digit tariff item on your invoice and shipping bill

India adds two national digits to the six-digit subheading. Trade databases list the Indian lines for these two subheadings as 4009 21 00 and 4009 22 00. We could not open the current CBIC Customs Tariff schedule to confirm the eight-digit lines on 11 October 2026, so treat them as the codes to check, not as confirmed: ask your customs broker or CA to verify them against the current schedule before you file.

How the HSN code changes for SS flexible hose and PTFE hose

The code follows the material that carries the fluid, not the word “steam” on the label. Three hoses that might serve the same steam point on a plant can sit in three different chapters.

1. Stainless steel flexible hose: 8307.10

Annular corrugated metal hose in AISI 304, 321 or 316L, the kind we list on our stainless steel flexible hose page, is “flexible tubing of base metal, with or without fittings”, heading 83.07. Steel takes it to subheading 8307.10, “of iron or steel”. Unlike rubber hose, the metal-hose heading does not split by fittings, because its own text already covers tubing with or without them.

2. PTFE hose: heading 39.17, with a pressure test in the subheading

PTFE is a plastic, so PTFE hose belongs with tubes, pipes and hoses of plastics, heading 39.17. Inside that heading, flexible hose with a minimum burst pressure of 27.6 MPa (about 276 bar) has its own subheading, 3917.31. Below that figure it is 3917.32 or 3917.33 if not reinforced, without or with fittings, and 3917.39 otherwise. The figure that decides it is the minimum burst on the datasheet, not the working pressure. Our PTFE hose is catalogued by working pressure, 250 bar at 1/8" falling to 30 bar at 2", so the burst figure for your size is the number your broker will ask for. Where a PTFE hose also carries a stainless steel braid, ask your broker to confirm that heading 39.17 still applies.

GST rate on rubber steam hose, and how it shows on the invoice

The current goods rate notification is 9/2025-Integrated Tax (Rate), dated 17 September 2025, in force from 22 September 2025. It replaced the 2017 rate notification and sorts goods into schedules by rate. Heading 4009 is Schedule II, serial number 135, “tubes, pipes and hoses, of vulcanised rubber other than hard rubber, with or without their fittings”, and Schedule II carries 18% integrated tax (Notification 9/2025-IT (Rate), checked 11 October 2026).

We found two amending notifications since then, 19/2025 dated 31 December 2025 and 01/2026 dated 30 April 2026. The summaries we read describe changes to tobacco products and to beverage tariff entries, not to these hose headings, but we read summaries, not the amending text itself. Have your CA check the consolidated notification before you invoice.

1. Selling to a buyer in another state: 18% IGST

An inter-state sale of rubber steam hose carries integrated tax at the Schedule II rate, 18%, whether the hose is bare (4009.21) or an assembly (4009.22). Fitting the couplings changes the subheading, not the rate.

2. Selling within the same state: central and state tax

Within a state, the same 18% is collected as central tax plus state tax in equal halves, under the companion notification 9/2025-Central Tax (Rate) and the state’s own notification. Your CA should confirm the split shown on your invoices.

3. How many digits of the HSN code the invoice must show

Notification 78/2020-Central Tax sets the number of HSN digits on a tax invoice from 1 April 2021: four digits if aggregate turnover in the preceding financial year was up to ₹5 crore, six digits above that. A business under ₹5 crore may leave the HSN code off invoices to unregistered buyers (Notification 78/2020-Central Tax). For our hose that means 4009 on a four-digit invoice, and 400921 or 400922 on a six-digit one.

Export paperwork notes for a steam hose shipment

The code you settle on for the invoice carries through every export document. Four points matter on any export order.

• Eight digits on the shipping bill. DGFT has required exporters to declare the eight-digit ITC (HS) code on the shipping bill at least since Policy Circular 40/2009-14 of 16 July 2010. Use the same code your broker confirmed for the invoice, so the two documents match.
• Exports are zero-rated. Section 16 of the IGST Act treats exports of goods as zero-rated supplies and lets a registered exporter supply under a bond or Letter of Undertaking without paying integrated tax, then claim refund of unused input tax credit, subject to the conditions and procedure prescribed (IGST Act, section 16, CBIC). Which route you use is a decision for your CA.
• The buyer’s customs works from the same six digits. The Harmonized System is shared to six digits; the importing country adds its own national digits and its own duty rate. A GCC buyer’s broker will start from 4009.21 or 4009.22 and classify in their own tariff.
• Keep the description identical everywhere. Invoice, packing list and test certificate should all describe the hose the same way: rubber steam hose, EPDM tube and cover, steel wire braid, the bore, the pressure grade and whether ends are fitted. A mismatch between “hose” on one document and “hose assembly” on another invites a query on 4009.21 versus 4009.22.

The documents we send with export orders, and the ports we ship from, are listed on our hose exporter in India page. Test certificates are supplied with every consignment, which helps when a buyer’s customs asks what the hose actually is.