Applicants in the recently held National Eligibility-Entrance Test Postgraduate (NEET-PG) examination 2022 saw a lack of basic facilities despite an exorbitant fees charged for appearing in the NEET PG Exam.
Doctors Pan India are questioning the spends by National Board of Examinations (NBE) when the basic facilities couldn’t be arranged for the applicants.
NBE is charging a fee of Rs. 4250 per general candidate for just appearing in the NEET PG exam. Following is the table showing the NEET PG Exam Fees 2022 as given in NEET PG Information Bulletin:
| Category of Candidate | NEET PG Exam Fees |
| General, OBC and EWS | Rs. 4250/- |
| SC, ST, PwD | Rs. 3250/- |
Dr Rohan Krishnan, president of the FAIMA Doctors’ Association pointed out that aspirants of NEET-PG 2022 were complaining about basic facilities like water, air conditioning lacked at the examination centers.
Dr. Rohan Krishnan compared the fees for NEET-PG with other exams such as INICET , ESIC, UPSC, based on a 2019 RTI reply exhibiting the amount of money NBE collected from the applications in his Tweet on a social media platform he claimed that “This is clear cut loot by NBE”.
The issue related to the fee structure of the NEET PG exam has been a matter of controversy for quite some time.
The RTI had revealed that NBE collected Rs 48 crore as application fees from NEET PG aspirants in 2018 and it spent around one third of that amount to conduct the exam there by incurring a profit of around Rs 30 crore.
NBE being an autonomous body under the Government of India, medical students had condemned the profits stating that ideally, ideally NBE should have subsidized the fees.
On the contrary, last year the examination fees was increased from Rs. 3,750 to Rs 5,015 (including GST) for general aspirants, while SC/ST and PwD candidates’ fee had been escalated from Rs 2,750 to Rs 3,835 (including GST).
NBE had decided to charge GST on NEET-PG entrance exam and DNB courses last year. Although, students started complaining about the move and started comparing the service provided by NBE and the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) and also the fees charged by them.
In the following events, the Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC) had clarified about the fees paid to the various education boards including the National Board of Examinations (NBE) would not be subject to goods and services tax (GST) anymore. However, this no GST policy would be applicable only for the purpose of conducting entrance examination or admission process, as clarified by CBIC.
The NEET PG 2022 examination was held despite protests from several applicants claiming that the schedule of the examination was almost clashing with the counseling schedule for NEET-PG 2021.
In another RTI in 2020, NBE had informed that it had collected Rs 59,75,49,500 from the application fees for NEET-PG 2020. In that response, NBE had also clarified that the institution does not maintain exam wise income and expenditure.
Referring to this, Dr. Krishnan claimed in his Tweet that when the fees for exams such as INI CET, UPSC, ESIC are less than half, such an exorbitant fees for NEET-PG is unacceptable. Aspirants have to pay exorbitant fee for an exam which is dedicated to service of the nation, which is unreasonable.
When institutions like INICET, ESIC, and UPSC conducts exam with less than half rate. Why medical professionals should be paying such an exorbitant amount. Examination can’t be conducted for profit making for a noble profession like this.
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