No Indian government body currently publishes a reachable, current per-square-foot construction cost benchmark: CPWD's Plinth Area Rates portal did not respond and the only state PWD Schedule of Rates our search could open is dated 2010. What is verifiable today is the September 2025 GST reform on cement and bricks, and the BIS standard numbers — IS 1786 for TMT steel, IS 269 for cement — your contractor's quote should carry.
Why there is no official ₹/sq ft rate to check your quote against
Two authorities publish, in principle, an official Indian construction-cost benchmark: the Central Public Works Department's (CPWD) Plinth Area Rates, and each state's own Public Works Department (PWD) Schedule of Rates. Neither could be opened and verified for a current figure while building this page — CPWD's own domain did not respond, and most state PWD sites that were tried were also unreachable. If you want the current CPWD figure, go to cpwd.gov.in directly and confirm the date on the document before using it; the site would not load for us.
The one state PWD schedule that did open shows how the method works, even though its own rupee figures are unusable today. Kerala's PWD Schedule of Rates (with effect from 14 May 2010) is built from labour and material data supplied by the state's Economics and Statistics Department, cross-checked against the current market trend each Executive Engineer reports for their division, and reviewed by a Chief Engineers Committee before the schedule is revised. That is the process a live 2026 schedule would still follow — but this particular document is sixteen years old, so none of its per-unit rates belong anywhere near a 2026 estimate. Only the method is still current.
What the September 2025 GST reform actually changed for materials
The GST Council's 56th meeting set the current rates in Notification No. 9/2025-Central Tax (Rate), dated 17 September 2025, which took effect from the reform's 22 September 2025 rollout. Two changes matter directly for a house build: cement (Portland, aluminous, slag and super-sulphate, HS 2523) moved from 28% to 18% GST, and sand-lime bricks moved from 12% to 5%.
The same official change list does not include ceramic or vitrified tiles, or paints and varnishes, among the items whose rate moved — a full text search of the annexure for those terms turned up only unrelated handicraft-ceramic and hand-painting entries. Ordinary building bricks other than sand-lime bricks are also unchanged. Treat any claim that tile or paint GST fell in this reform as unverified until you see the specific notification line yourself.
Two BIS standard numbers worth asking for by name
A contractor's quote for reinforcement steel should name IS 1786:2008, the Bureau of Indian Standards specification for high-strength deformed steel bars and wires used in RCC construction, licensed and tested under Scheme-I of the BIS (Conformity Assessment) Regulations, 2018. Ask for the ISI licence number on the bar tag, not just a brand name — Fe 500, Fe 550 and Fe 500D grades are all sold under this one standard.
For cement, BIS's own product-manual listing confirms IS 269:2015, Ordinary Portland Cement, as the current, actively-licensable standard under the same Scheme-I regime. (BIS's underlying product manual for this standard is a scanned document that could not be read as text for this page, so the specific grade-33/43/53 test thresholds are not reproduced here — only that IS 269:2015 is the correct number to look for on the bag.)
Reading the cement and steel price trend, not a price
The Ministry of Commerce's Wholesale Price Index gives a directional read on material costs, not a per-sq-ft figure. For October 2025 (over October 2024), the all-India WPI annual inflation rate was (-)1.21% (provisional), and the release's Cement, Lime and Plaster sub-group carried an index value of 132.0 while the Mild Steel – Semi-Finished Steel sub-group carried 118.5 (Base Year 2011-12=100). Use this only to sense whether material costs are trending up or down since your last quote — it is not a substitute for a fresh contractor rate, and the release does not resolve to a specific month-over-month cement or steel price on its own.
Methodology
Figures on this page come only from the GST Council's official 56th-meeting change list and the Department of Consumer Affairs' GST FAQ (for the reform's notification number and date), BIS's own product-manual pages (for the two standard numbers), the Ministry of Commerce's WPI release (for the cement/steel cost-trend context), and Kerala PWD's 2010 Schedule of Rates (for methodology only, never a price). No CPWD or current state PWD rate could be independently verified, so none is published here — see the first section for why.
Sources
- PIB / GST Council — Recommendations of the 56th GST Council Meeting — accessed 2026-09-21
- Department of Consumer Affairs — Frequently Asked Questions on GST, Part 3 — accessed 2026-09-21
- BIS — Product Manual for High Strength Deformed Steel Bars (IS 1786:2008) — accessed 2026-09-21
- BIS — Product Manuals listing (IS 269:2015 Ordinary Portland Cement) — accessed 2026-09-21
- PIB / Office of the Economic Adviser — WPI release, October 2025 — accessed 2026-09-21
- Government of Kerala PWD — Schedule of Rates 2010, Volume I — accessed 2026-09-21