BHUBANESWAR: After a gap of nearly three years, the Odisha Public Service Commission (OPSC) has reintroduced examination fees for various recruitment examinations.
As per the newly notified ‘Odisha Payment of Recruitment Examination Fees and Refund Rules, 2025’, candidates belonging to categories other than SC, ST and persons with disabilities (PwDs) will pay an examination fee of `700 for recruitments that involve a written examination as part of the competitive selection process. The revised fee structure and refund mechanism will apply to all future recruitment processes conducted by the Commission.
The fee will be applicable irrespective of the number of stages in the written examination. However, the Commission has clarified that no examination fee will be charged for recruitment processes that involve only interviews and do not include any written test, providing relief to candidates applying for such posts.
The OPSC has also introduced a refund mechanism to encourage participation of serious candidates. The examination fee paid by candidates will be refunded in full to those who actually appear in all papers of the first stage of the written examination. In contrast, the fee will be forfeited in cases where candidates fail to appear in all papers of the first stage.
Refunds will be processed automatically and credited back to the original mode of payment used by the candidate at the time of submitting the online application, including credit card, debit card, UPI, net banking or digital wallets, a notification stated.
Earlier, examination fee of Rs 500 was being collected and it was discontinued following a notification issued by the General Administration and Public Grievance department on April 11, 2022.