An apparatus and method for transmitting and receiving packet data in persistent resources in a wireless communication system using Hybrid Automatic Repeat reQuest (HARQ) are provided, in which a user buffer stores user data to be transmitted to a receiver, a controller allocates persistent resources to the receiver according to the data type of the user data and controls a Packet Start Indicator (PSI) to be included in an initial transmission subpacket, when the initial transmission subpacket is transmitted, and a transmission and reception processor transmits the user data and the PSI to the receiver and receives a response signal from the receiver.