Appendix I explained: this guide covers what it means, who it applies to, the step-by-step process, documents required, fees, due dates and penalties in India — so you can stay compliant with confidence and avoid costly mistakes.
Appendix I is the table of rates at which depreciation is admissible, as a percentage of the written down value of a block of assets. This article reproduces the table as printed, block by block, as per the Income-tax Rules, 2026 (G.S.R. 198(E), notified on 20 March 2026), read with the amending notifications issued up to 22 September 2026. Later notifications should be checked.
Rule 25(1) says the allowance under section 33(3) for a block of assets specified in column (2) of the Table in Appendix I is calculated at the percentages in column (3) on the written down value of the block used for the business or profession in the tax year. The Table has Part A (tangible assets: buildings, furniture and fittings, machinery and plant, ships) and Part B (intangible assets, 25 per cent). Rates run from 5 per cent for residential buildings to 45 per cent for certain vehicles.
The rule and the section
Section 33 of the Income-tax Act, 2025 is the depreciation section: under section 33(3)(a), for a block of assets the deduction is such percentage of the written down value as may be prescribed; see section 33. Rule 25(1) prescribes it by reference to Appendix I, subject to sub-rule (7) of rule 25 (a rate of 40 per cent of written down value for certain new machinery or plant based on technology developed in a laboratory of the kind the sub-rule describes). Rule 25(2) caps the allowance at 40 per cent of written down value for the persons and conditions in its own Table. For the rule in full, see our post on rule 25. Appendix II, the rates on actual cost for power undertakings, is in the companion article.
The Table's column heads are: (1) serial number, (2) block of assets, and (3) "Depreciation allowance as percentage of written down value".
If you are choosing the block for an asset or reconciling a depreciation schedule, our books of accounts compliance team can help.
Part A, I: Building (see Notes 1 to 4)
| Sub-item | Block | Rate (per cent) |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Buildings used mainly for residential purposes, except hotels and boarding houses | 5 |
| 2 | Buildings other than those used mainly for residential purposes and not covered by sub-items 1 and 3 | 10 |
| 3 | Buildings for installing machinery and plant forming part of a water supply project or water treatment system, put to use for the business of providing infrastructure facilities under section 80-IA(4)(i) of the Income-tax Act, 1961 (as printed) | 40 |
| 4 | Purely temporary erections such as wooden structures | 40 |
Part A, II: Furniture and fittings
Furniture and fittings including electrical fittings (see Note 5): 10 per cent.
Part A, III: Machinery and plant
| Sub-item | Block | Rate (per cent) |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Machinery and plant other than those covered by sub-items 2, 3 and 8 | 15 |
| 2(i) | Motor cars, other than those used in a business of running them on hire, except those covered under entry (ii), acquired on or after the 1st April, 1990 | 15 |
| 2(ii) | Motor cars, other than those used in a business of running them on hire, acquired on or after the 23rd August, 2019 but before the 1st April, 2020 and put to use before the 1st April, 2020 | 30 |
| 3(i) | Aeroplanes and aeroengines | 40 |
| 3(ii) | Motor buses, motor lorries and motor taxis used in a business of running them on hire | 30 |
| 3(iii) | The same vehicles, acquired on or after the 23rd August, 2019 but before the 1st April, 2020 and put to use before the 1st April, 2020 | 45 |
| 3(iv) | New commercial vehicle acquired on or after the 1st January, 2009 but before the 1st October, 2009 and put to use before the 1st October, 2009 for business or profession (Note 6) | 40 |
| 3(v) | Moulds used in rubber and plastic goods factories | 30 |
| 3(ix) | Machinery and plant used in the semi-conductor industry covering integrated circuits (excluding hybrid integrated circuits) from small scale to large and very large scale integration, and discrete semi-conductor devices such as diodes, transistors, thyristors and triacs, other than those covered by entries (iv), (v) and (vi) and sub-item 7 | 30 |
| 4 | Containers made of glass or plastic used as re-fills | 40 |
| 5 | Computers including computer software (Note 7) | 40 |
| 6 | Machinery and plant acquired and installed on or after the 1st September, 2002 in a water supply project or water treatment system, put to use for the business of providing infrastructure facility under the printed provision of the earlier Act (Notes 4 and 8) | 40 |
Sub-item 3, entries (vi), (vii), (viii) and (x): 40 per cent each.
- 3(vi) Air pollution control equipment: electrostatic precipitation systems; felt-filter systems; dust collector systems; scrubbers (counter current, venturi, packed bed, cyclonic); ash handling and evacuation systems.
- 3(vii) Water pollution control equipment: mechanical screen systems; aerated detritus chambers; mechanically skimmed oil and grease removal systems; chemical feed systems and flash mixing equipment; mechanical flocculators and reactors; diffused air or mechanically aerated activated sludge systems; aerated lagoon systems; biofilters; methane-recovery anaerobic digester systems; air flotation systems; air or steam stripping systems; urea hydrolysis systems; marine outfall systems; centrifuge for dewatering sludge; rotating biological contractor or bio-disc; ion exchange resin column; activated carbon column.
- 3(viii) Solid waste control equipment: caustic, lime, chrome, mineral and cryolite recovery systems; solid waste recycling and resource recovery systems.
- 3(x) Life saving medical equipment: D.C. defibrillators for internal use and pace makers; haemodialysors; heart lung machine; cobalt therapy unit; colour Doppler; SPECT gamma camera; vascular angiography system including digital subtraction angiography; ventilator used with anaesthesia apparatus; magnetic resonance imaging system; surgical laser; ventilator other than those used with anaesthesia apparatus; gamma knife; bone marrow transplant equipment including silastic long standing intravenous catheters for chemotherapy; fibre optic endoscopes of the kinds listed in the print; laparoscope (single incision).
Sub-item 7: 40 per cent each, except entry (xii)(c).
- (i) wooden parts used in artificial silk manufacturing machinery; (ii) cinematograph films, bulbs of studio lights; (iii) match factories, wooden match frames; (iv) mines and quarries: tubs winding ropes, haulage ropes and sand stowing pipes, and safety lamps; (v) salt works: salt pans, reservoirs and condensers made of earthy, sandy, clayey or similar material; (vi) flour mills, rollers; (vii) iron and steel industry, rolling mill rolls; (viii) sugar works, rollers.
- (ix) Energy saving devices: A, specialised boilers and furnaces (ignifluid or fluidized bed boilers, flameless and continuous pusher type furnaces, fluidized bed type heat treatment furnaces, high efficiency boilers with the thermal efficiency figures the print gives); B, instrumentation and monitoring systems for energy flows (eight kinds); C, waste heat recovery equipment (four kinds); D, co-generation systems (four kinds); E, electrical equipment (twelve kinds, from shunt capacitors to special energy meters for availability based tariff); F, burners (three kinds); G, other equipment (eight kinds, from wet air oxidation equipment to sealed radiation sources for radiation processing plants).
- (x) Gas cylinders including valves and regulators; (xi) glass manufacturing concerns, direct fire glass melting furnaces.
- (xii) Mineral oil concerns: (a) plant used in field operations (above ground), distribution, returnable packages: 40; (b) plant used in field operations (below ground), but not including kerbside pumps, including underground tanks and fittings used in field operations (distribution): 40; (c) oil wells not covered in clauses (a) and (b): 15 (the three clauses are split by a page break in the print and are rebuilt from the lines around them).
- (xiii) Renewable energy devices, items (a) to (r): flat plate solar collectors; concentrating and pipe type solar collectors; solar cookers; solar water heaters and systems; air, gas or fluid heating systems; solar crop driers; solar refrigeration, cold storages and air conditioning systems; solar stills and desalination systems; solar power generating systems; solar pumps; solar-photovoltaic modules and panels; wind mills and specially designed devices running on wind mills installed on or after the 1st April, 2014; special devices including electric generators and pumps running on wind energy installed on or after the 1st April, 2014; biogas plant and biogas engines; electrically operated vehicles; agricultural and municipal waste conversion devices producing energy; equipment for utilising ocean waste and thermal energy; machinery and plant used in manufacturing any of these.
Sub-item 8: 40 per cent each. (i)(a) books being annual publications and (i)(b) other books, owned by assessees carrying on a profession; (ii) books owned by assessees carrying on business in running lending libraries.
Part A, IV: Ships
| Sub-item | Block | Rate (per cent) |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Ocean-going ships including dredgers, tugs, barges, survey launches and other similar ships used mainly for dredging purposes, and fishing vessels with wooden hull | 20 |
| 2 | Vessels ordinarily operating on inland waters, not covered by sub-item 3 | 20 |
| 3 | Vessels ordinarily operating on inland waters being speed boats (Note 9) | 20 |
Part B: Intangible assets
Know-how, patents, copyrights, trademarks, licences, franchises or any other business or commercial rights of similar nature: 25 per cent of written down value.
The Notes
- "Buildings" include roads, bridges, culverts, wells and tubewells.
- A building is mainly residential if the built-up floor area used for residential purposes is not less than sixty-six and two-third per cent of its total built-up floor area, and includes such a building in factory premises.
- For a structure or work by way of renovation or improvement in a building referred to in section 33(6), the percentage is that of sub-item 1 or 2 of item I, as appropriate to the class of building; for an extension, the percentage is that appropriate as if it were a separate building.
- Water treatment system includes a system for desalination, demineralisation and purification of water.
- "Electrical fittings" include electrical wiring, switches, sockets, other fittings and fans.
- "Commercial vehicle" has the printed list of vehicle classes, defined by reference to the Motor Vehicles Act, 1988 (check that Act).
- "Computer software" means any computer program recorded on any disc, tape, perforated media or other information storage device.
- Machinery and plant includes pipes needed for delivery from the source of supply of raw water to the plant and from the plant to the storage facility.
- "Speed boat" means a motor boat driven by a high speed internal combustion engine capable of propelling it at a speed exceeding 24 kilometres per hour in still water and so designed that at speed its bow rises from the water.
Need help with depreciation schedules?
Putting each asset in the right block, and tracking additions, sales and the written down value year to year, is the heart of a clean fixed asset register. If you want the register and the tax depreciation workings checked, speak to our books of accounts compliance specialists.
Key takeaways
- Rates apply to the written down value of the block, per rule 25(1).
- Part A covers buildings (5, 10, 40), furniture (10), machinery and plant (15 to 45) and ships (20); Part B covers intangibles (25).
- Computers and software are at 40 per cent; general machinery and plant at 15 per cent.
- Oil wells not covered by the other mineral oil clauses are at 15 per cent, though the rest of that entry is at 40.
- The Notes define buildings, residential use, commercial vehicle, software and speed boat.
Read next
- Appendix II: depreciation on actual cost for power undertakings
- Rule 25: depreciation under section 33
- Section 33 of the Income-tax Act, 2025: depreciation
- Form 112: audit report of a registered non-profit organisation
Disclaimer: Based on the Income-tax Rules, 2026 (G.S.R. 198(E), notified on 20 March 2026), read with the amending notifications issued up to 22 September 2026, as consulted on 2 October 2026. It explains the words of the rules and forms only; later notifications, the forms and utilities on the e-filing portal, circulars and the way the tax authorities apply these provisions should be checked. This article is general information, not legal advice; check the official text before acting.