Category
Government & tax
Tax payments, challans and government portals. Almost every bank has stopped rewarding these.
No card in your wallet earns rewards on government & tax yet.
When you add a card that does, it will rank here automatically.
Best in market
This is a dead category and you should plan around that. 39 of the 52 cards in the catalogue earn nothing at all on tax payments, challans and government portals, and the two that do earn cap it tightly. Assume you earn nothing unless you hold one of these. · Top-tier picks from the whole Indian market, researched 11 Aug 2026.
HSBC Premier
3% on government and tax payments, one of only two cards that pay anything
₹12,000 to join then ₹20,000 a year, waived outright for HSBC Qualified Premier customers
Almost every issuer has withdrawn government earning, so this is close to the last card standing. At 3% it is not a token rate either, it matches its own best categories.
Shares the cumulative ₹1,00,000 a month capped category allowance with education and jewellery, so those three compete for one pot. Access is restricted to HSBC Qualified Premier customers in practice.
ICICI Bank Times Black
2% on government spend, the only other card that has not withdrawn it
₹20,000 + GST, waived on ₹25L a year
The sole alternative if HSBC Premier is out of reach. Useful mainly if you already carry the card, since 2% on an otherwise dead category is real money on a large tax payment.
Capped at 5,000 reward points a statement cycle and that pot is shared with utilities, insurance and education. The fee is ₹20,000 and the waiver needs ₹25L of annual spend, so this is not a card you take for tax alone.
Your wallet · Government & tax
What this category is actually worth
The same checks as the wallet page, narrowed to all 0 cards that earn on government & tax. Set a monthly figure for it in to put rupees on these.
Earnings here
What each card would return on government & tax at your spend. raw rates, before caps.
Every card in your wallet is excluded from government & tax. See the reasons in the table above.
Milestone progress
Milestones on these cards, against your total spend routed to one card.
None of the cards that earn here has a milestone.
Fee check: does each card pay for itself?
Value is still counted across your whole wallet, not just this category. a card earns its fee wherever it wins. Waivers are not assumed.
| Card | Fee | Value/yr | Verdict |
|---|
Where the market beats your wallet
Your best card against the top pick in Best in market, just above. The numbers only, since the pick itself is already on this page.
No market pick with a comparable rate for this category yet.