IRS 2024 Exam

IRS or the India Revenue Service is a Group-A service under the Civil Services. India Revenue Service (IRS) is one of the three All India Services. The IRS is the administrative revenue service under the Government of India. It functions under the Department of Revenue, Ministry of Finance. Millions of Indians dream to clear the IRS Exam but only a few succeed. 

To become an IRS officer, one needs to clear all stages of the UPSC Exam. Let’s take a brief look at the IRS Eligibility, IRS Exam Syllabus, and other information related to the IRS Exam. IRS Exam consists of three stages - Prelims, Mains and Interview. Applicants who wish to join IRS must clear all the stages of the IRS Exam. 

IRS Exam Date 2023 is released in the notification. The Prelims exam will take place on 28 May 2023. Aspirants who want to become Indian Revenue Service officers must start their preparations from now to score well in the exam.

The IRS Exam 2023 prelims will be conducted by UPSC on 28 May 2023 in two shifts:

• Shift 1 – General Studies Paper-1: 9:30 A.M to 11:30 A.M.
• Shift 2 – General Studies Paper-2 (CSAT): 02:30 P.M. to 04:30 P.M.

Candidates need to fulfill the eligibility criteria for IRS Officers to appear for the exam. Theeligibility criteria have four components:

Candidates aspiring to become IRS Officers must fulfill the following educational criteria. Candidates must fit any one of the below.

• A degree acquired through distance learning or correspondence education.
• A Central, State, or Deemed University degree
• Certificate from Open University
• Also, any qualification acknowledged by the Indian Government is equivalent to all the above-given qualifications.

The applicants of IRS Officer Recruitment must be a minimum of 21 years. The upper age limit for IRS is 32 years for the General Category. The upper age limit for candidates of OBC is 35 years and for candidates of SC/ ST is 37 years.
 

The aspiring candidates of the Indian Revenue Service must be from one of the following.

• An Indian citizen
• A person of Indian descent who intends to permanently reside in India after migrating from Myanmar, Pakistan, Kenya, Sri Lanka, Uganda, Zaire, Tanzania, Ethiopia, Zambia, Malawi, or Vietnam is eligible.

The candidates of the General Category can attend the IRS Exam six times. The candidates of OBC can attend the IRS Exam nine times. The candidates of SC/ ST can attend IRS Exam until the candidates reach 37 years of age.

IRS Exam Admit Card for Prelims is generally released a few weeks before the exam by UPSC on their official website. IRS candidates, who have successfully registered for the UPSC Prelims Exam will be able to download the IRS admit card from the website. 

IRS Exam Admit Card for Mains is released after the Prelims result is out and a few weeks before the Mains Exams. Candidates who have cleared the UPSC Prelims will only be able to download the admit card. 

It is of utmost importance that the candidate carries the admit card to his/her exam center, along with valid ID proof. Not compelling to this may lead to denial of his/her appearance for the Exam.

Apart from this, they are also entitled to other benefits like Dearness Allowance, House Rent Allowance, etc. You can check out the detailed breakage of IRS Officers’ salary slip below –

The syllabus plays a crucial part in the successful preparation of any exam. Having the right understanding of the syllabus helps the candidates to drift their preparation in the right direction. The candidates planning to appear for IRS Exam 2022 should know the accurate syllabus for both exams beforehand.

The syllabus for Paper 1 includes:

• National movement & Indian History
• Indian Polity and Governance – Political System, Constitution, Public Policy, Rights Issues, Panchayat Raj, etc.
• Indian and World Geography – Indian Economic Geography, the World as well as Social
• General issues on Climate Change; Economic and Social Development – Social Sector Initiatives, Sustainable Development, Poverty, Inclusion, Demographics, etc.
• Biodiversity
• General Science
• Environmental ecology
• As well as, current affairs of international & national interest.

The syllabus for Paper 2 includes:

• Comprehension
• Logical reasoning as well as analytical ability
• Interpersonal skills including communication skills
• General mental ability
• Solving problems and Decision planning
• Basic Numerals (orders of magnitude, numbers and their relations, etc.) (Class X level), as well as, Data interpretation (charts, graphs, tables, data sufficiency, etc. – Class X level).

The syllabus of the IRS Mains Exam is based on the selection of candidates.

The syllabus for IRS General Studies – 1 includes:

• Indian Culture
• Modern Indian History
• World History
• Indian Society
• Geographical Elements of the World

The syllabus for IRS General Studies – 2 includes:

• Indian Constitution
• Indian Politics
• Government Ministries and Departments
• Government Policies and Interventions
• International Relations

The syllabus for IRS General Studies – 3 includes:

• Indian Economy
• Security
• Science and Technology
• Disaster Management
• Environment and Biodiversity

The syllabus for IRS General Studies – 4 includes:

• Ethics and Human Interface
• Civil
• Human Attitude
• Probity in Governance
• Aptitude
• Emotional Intelligence

Candidates can select from any one of the optional subjects. The other optional subject must opt from any one of the regional languages of India.

IRS Officer Recruitment has two papers – Preliminary Exam and Mains Exam. Aspirants should have proper knowledge of Exam Patterns to prepare efficiently for the exam. The exam pattern for IRS Exam 2022 is mentioned below: IRS Recruitment Preliminary Exam Pattern

The IRS Preliminary Exam has two papers – General Studies and Aptitude Test (CSAT). Each paper has 100 questions and the total marks are 200 marks. The exam duration of each paper is 120 minutes. The exam mode is offline for both papers.

There are nine papers for the Mains Exam and two of them are compulsory for each candidate and the rest are optional.

Candidates need to achieve minimum cut-off marks to pass the IRS Exam. The cut-off list is prepared category-wise. Based on the cutoff marks by UPSC, the candidates will be shortlisted depending on the number of candidates.

As discussed earlier, the IRS Exam is conducted by the UPSC. UPSC releases the IRS Exam application form every year and the candidates eligible can fill up the application form on the official website of UPSC. It is always advised for the candidates to go through all the necessary details mentioned in the UPSC Notification before filling up the exam form online.

To apply, the candidate must:

• Visit the official website of UPSC. 
• Then go to the Examination Tab, and select ‘Active Examination’.
• Click on Civil Services (Preliminary) Examination.
• Click on the ‘Apply’ option.
• Fill in all the required information and upload your latest photo and signature according to the desired size and file format.
• Once filled, preview the application form, save a copy for your reference, and then submit.

IRS candidates are required to pay a fee of Rs. 100/- (Rupees One Hundred only) either by remitting the money in any Branch of State Bank of India or by using Visa/Master/RuPay Credit/Debit Card or by using Internet Banking of SBI. Female/SC/ST/Persons with Benchmark Disability Candidates are exempted from payment of the fee.

Applicants who opt for the "Pay by Cash" mode should print the system-generated Pay-in-slip during part II registration and deposit the fee at the counter of the SBI Branch on the next working day only.