Checked 29 September 2026. From the revised syllabus issued with the Exam Wing branch circulars of 07.01.2022 and, for Defence Audit, 11.03.2022 (re-posted 18.10.2023; restated in a Kerala audit office circular of 29.04.2026) and the pattern in Exam Wing Circulars 10 of 2022 and 01 of 2024. The MSO paragraph still prints the pre-2022 syllabus and has not been re-issued. No revision had been notified by 29 September 2026.
The Incentive Examination for Senior Auditors is the one-paper exam that an eligible IA&AD Senior Auditor can sit, in a yearly sitting, to earn one advance increment. It is not a promotion and it does not change your post; it moves your pay one cell up in your pay level. The paper is called "Finance, Accounts and Audit" and the same syllabus applies in every audit branch: Civil, Commercial, P&T, Railway, Defence and Local Audit (West Bengal). This guide sets out that syllabus section by section, names the exact articles and documents it lists, shows what changed from the older syllabus still printed in the Manual of Standing Orders, and ends with a tracker you can tick off. ProSyllabus is an independent study site, not part of the Comptroller and Auditor General of India or the Indian Audit and Accounts Department. Every rule here is quoted or summarised from the MSO (Administration) and Exam Wing and field-office circulars; your own office and Exam Wing decide individual cases.
Where other pages get this wrong
The paper is 2 hours and 100 multiple-choice questions, on the syllabus revised on 07.01.2022. The CAG DPC Act and the Constitution's chapter on the CAG are no longer named in it.
Commonly published instead: The MSO description: one paper of 2½ hours, written without books, on the CAG's (DPC&S) Act, an introduction to Indian government accounts and audit, and Parts V, VI and XII of the Constitution.
MSO (Admn) Vol. I para 9.8.4 and 9.8.5 have not been re-issued since the change. The Exam Wing circulars of January and March 2022 replaced both the pattern and the syllabus, and Circular 01 of 2024 applies them to the centrally conducted exam. Where the MSO and the 2022 circulars disagree, this page follows the circulars and prints both.
Revised syllabus (07.01.2022); Exam Wing Circulars 10 of 2022 and 01 of 2024; MSO para 9.8.3 (all official).
The paper in one table
| Section | Marks | What it covers | Reference named in the syllabus |
|---|---|---|---|
| I. Provisions of the Constitution of India | 20 | Money Bills (Arts 110-111); procedure in financial matters (Arts 112-119); Finance (Arts 264-290A); Borrowing (Arts 292-293) | Constitution of India |
| II. Book Keeping | 30 | Receipts and Payments Account and Income and Expenditure Account; Uniform Format of Accounts for Central Autonomous Bodies prescribed by the Ministry of Finance | NAAA Shimla, "Commercial Accountancy: Book-keeping in Private Sector"; CAG Manual of Instructions for Audit of Autonomous Bodies; the Uniform Format |
| III. CAG's Auditing Guidelines | 50 | Practice Note on Financial Attest Audit of Autonomous Bodies; Compliance Auditing Guidelines; Performance Auditing Guidelines 2014 | The three documents, as issued by the CAG of India |
Section marks from the revised syllabus (official). With 100 one-mark questions, marks and questions per section should match, but the syllabus gives marks only; the question split is our reading.
Half the paper is the CAG's own auditing guidelines. That is the single most useful fact for planning: a candidate who knows the three guidelines well and the Constitution articles thoroughly has 70 of the 100 marks in documents they already use at work or can read in a few evenings. On our reading, book-keeping is the section most likely to need fresh study for a Senior Auditor whose work has not involved Commercial or autonomous-body audit, because the two account forms and the Uniform Format are not everyday material in every audit party.
Section I: the Constitution articles, 20 marks
The syllabus names four groups of articles. The one-line subjects below are the headings of those articles in the Constitution; the grouping is the syllabus's own.
| Group in the syllabus | Articles | Where in the Constitution | Subject of the articles |
|---|---|---|---|
| Money Bills | 110, 111 | Part V, Chapter II (Parliament) | Definition of Money Bills; assent to Bills |
| Procedure in financial matters | 112 to 119 | Part V, Chapter II | Annual financial statement; procedure on estimates; Appropriation Bills; supplementary, additional or excess grants; votes on account, votes of credit and exceptional grants; special provisions for financial Bills; rules of procedure; regulation by law of financial business |
| Finance | 264 to 290A | Part XII, Chapter I | No tax save by authority of law; Consolidated Funds and public accounts; Contingency Fund; distribution of revenues between the Union and the States, including the GST Council (Art. 279A) and the Finance Commission (Art. 280); grants from the Union; custody of funds; exemptions of Union and State property from taxation; Art. 290A payments to certain Devaswom Funds |
| Borrowing | 292, 293 | Part XII, Chapter II | Borrowing by the Government of India; borrowing by States |
Notice what is not in the list. Articles 148 to 151 (the CAG itself) and Articles 202 to 207 (the State legislature's financial procedure) are not named in the Sr. Auditor syllabus. The older MSO syllabus included both. The Sr. Accountant paper, which is set on the same day for A&E offices, does name Articles 203 to 207. If you are revising from an older guide or a colleague's notes, check which syllabus they were written for.
Section II: Book Keeping, 30 marks
What the syllabus asks for
- Receipts and Payments Account and Income and Expenditure Account. The two statements are named as one topic; the reference named is the NAAA Shimla book "Commercial Accountancy: Book-keeping in Private Sector".
- Uniform Format of Accounts for Central Autonomous Bodies, prescribed by the Government of India, Ministry of Finance. The format itself is named as reference material.
- CAG Manual of Instructions for Audit of Autonomous Bodies is named as reference material for this section, not as a separate topic.
Revised syllabus, Section II (official). The syllabus does not break the 30 marks down further.
Two of the named items point at one kind of entity, the central autonomous body: the Uniform Format here, and the practice note on financial attest audit of autonomous bodies that opens Section III. The rest is broader: the NAAA book-keeping text is about the private sector, and the compliance and performance auditing guidelines apply to audit generally. On our reading the overlap between Sections II and III is the audit of an autonomous body's accounts, so time spent there counts twice.
Section III: CAG's Auditing Guidelines, 50 marks
| Document named | Issued by | Our note |
|---|---|---|
| Practice Note on Financial Attest Audit of Autonomous Bodies | CAG of India | Specifically autonomous bodies. It is not a general financial audit guideline, and older descriptions that say "financial audit guidelines" are broader than the syllabus |
| Compliance Auditing Guidelines | CAG of India | The syllabus names no edition year for this one |
| Performance Auditing Guidelines 2014 | CAG of India | The syllabus names the 2014 edition |
The syllabus says "Provisions of the following" and lists the three documents. It does not name chapters, paragraphs or an edition date for the compliance guidelines, so the safe reading is the whole of each document as issued. If the CAG has issued a newer edition of any of them since January 2022, the syllabus has not been updated to say which edition applies; ask your exam cell rather than guess.
Old syllabus against the 2022 syllabus
| Feature | MSO para 9.8.4-9.8.5 (older) | Revised (2022 onwards) | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Duration | 2½ hours | 2 hours | MSO; revised syllabus; Circular 10 of 2022 (official) |
| Question type | Descriptive | 100 MCQ of 1 mark, 0.25 negative | Circulars 01 and 10 of 2022; 01 of 2024 (official) |
| Books | Without books | Without books | MSO; Circular 10 of 2022 (official) |
| CAG's (DPC&S) Act | Named | Not named | MSO; revised syllabus (official) |
| Introduction to Indian Government Accounts and Audit | Named | Not named | MSO; revised syllabus (official) |
| Constitution | Part V (money bills, financial procedure, Chapter 5 on the CAG), Part VI Chapter 3, Part XII Chapters 1-2 | Arts 110-119, 264-290A, 292-293 only; 20 marks | MSO; revised syllabus (official) |
| Book-keeping | Not named | 30 marks | Revised syllabus (official) |
| CAG auditing guidelines | Not named | 50 marks | Revised syllabus (official) |
Put simply, the paper moved from knowing the CAG's legal mandate to knowing how the CAG expects an audit to be done. Seventy of the hundred marks are now book-keeping and auditing practice, which did not appear by name in the older list at all. That is our reading of the two lists side by side; the circulars do not explain the reasoning.
Conflicts in the official papers
| Question | One document says | Another says | Our reading |
|---|---|---|---|
| How long is the paper? | 2½ hours (MSO para 9.8.4; Jharkhand Office Manual para 6.14) | 2 hours (revised syllabus; Circular 10 of 2022; Circular 01 of 2024; 2023-2025 field circulars) | 2 hours. The circulars are later and specific; the MSO has not been re-issued |
| Which Constitution articles? | MSO: Part V incl. Chapter 5 (CAG), Part VI Chapter 3, Part XII Chapters 1-2 | Revised syllabus: Arts 110-119, 264-290A, 292-293 | The revised list |
Tick off the syllabus
Sr. Auditor Incentive Exam syllabus tracker
Tick each item as you finish it. The items are the syllabus's own list; the reading notes in brackets are ours.
0 of 11 done
Ticks are saved only in this browser on this device.
Do not count on coaching. The Jharkhand Office Manual repeats an older CAG instruction that the Department "will not provide any training" for candidates nor supply any books. None of the 2022-2026 circulars we read offers training or material for this exam, though none restates the instruction either. Every document in the syllabus list is a public CAG or Government of India document, so the reading list costs nothing but time.
What is the syllabus of the CAG Incentive Examination for Senior Auditors?
One paper, Finance, Accounts and Audit, 100 marks: Constitution of India provisions 20 marks (Arts 110-119, 264-290A, 292-293), Book Keeping 30 marks (receipts and payments and income and expenditure accounts, and the Uniform Format of Accounts for Central Autonomous Bodies) and CAG's Auditing Guidelines 50 marks (the practice note on financial attest audit of autonomous bodies, the compliance auditing guidelines and the performance auditing guidelines 2014).
Is the syllabus different for Civil, Commercial, Railway or Defence audit?
No. Every branch circular of 2022 (07.01.2022, and 11.03.2022 for Defence Audit) carries the same page, titled the revised syllabus for all audit branches.
Is the paper 2 hours or 2½ hours?
2 hours under the 2022 circulars and Circular 01 of 2024. The MSO still says 2½ hours because that paragraph has not been re-issued.
Is the CAG DPC Act in the syllabus?
Not in the revised syllabus. It was named in the older MSO syllabus.
Are books allowed?
No. Circular 10 of 2022 and Circular 01 of 2024 say books are not allowed in the MCQ exams.
Can I answer in Hindi?
Yes. The MSO and the field circulars give the option of English or Hindi.
Does the department provide study material?
No exam-specific study package is published. The syllabus itself and every document it names are official and public. An older CAG instruction, quoted in the Jharkhand Office Manual, says the department provides no training and no books.
Is this the same syllabus as the Incentive Exam for Senior Accountants?
No. The Sr. Accountant paper, Finance and Government Accounts, has five sections of 20 marks, including the Regulations on Audit and Accounts 2020, IT theory and the Civil Accounts Manual 2007. It is held at the same time on the same day.
Sources
- official — Revised Syllabus of Incentive Examination for Sr. Auditors for all Audit Branches (standalone page on the Books page, file dated 18.10.2023)
- official — Exam Wing circular of 07.01.2022 (Civil Audit branch) carrying the "Revised Syllabus of Incentive Examination for Sr. Auditors for all Audit Branches"; sibling circulars for the other branches carry the same page (Defence Audit's is dated 11.03.2022)
- official — Exam Wing Circular No. 08 of 2022, No. 123/08-Exam/Syllabus Revision/2021 (11.03.2022), for Defence Audit offices, carrying the same revised syllabus of the IE for Sr. Auditors
- official — O/o Accountant General (Audit) Kerala: Circular No. 13 of 29.04.2026 (exam 13.05.2026; one year in the grade as on 01.04.2026; ACP/MACP Senior Auditors and Assistant Supervisors also eligible; increment in the scale drawn at the time of the exam; last date 30.04.2026)
- official — Exam Wing Circular No. 01 of 2022 (06.01.2022): change of pattern to MCQ in departmental examinations conducted locally
- official — Exam Wing Circular No. 10 of 2022, No. 145/07-Exam/Clarification MCQ Pattern/2022 (24.03.2022): 2 hours, no books, 100 MCQ, pass 50% in the IE, negative marking 0.25
- official — Exam Wing Circular No. 01 of 2024, No. 15/15-Exam/Exam Conducting Centrally/2023 (17.01.2024): four categories of departmental examinations conducted centrally w.e.f. 01.07.2024, incl. the IE for Sr. Auditors/Sr. Accountants "once in a year i.e. April"
- official — CAG Manual of Standing Orders (Administration) Vol. I, Third Edition, Chapter 9: para 9.8 (Incentive Examination for Senior Auditors/Senior Accountants) and para 9.9 (Incentive Examination for SOs/AAOs of A&E offices)
- official — AG (Audit) Jharkhand Office Manual, Chapter VI para 6.14 (2020 upload): the older rules, including the "maximum of their pay scales" bar, citing CAG circulars of 1988, 1991 and 1992
- official — Revised Syllabus of Incentive Examination for Senior Accountants (Exam Wing Circular No. 02 of 2024, 12.07.2024)
- official — CAG Syllabus and Books page (lists the Sr. Auditor, Sr. Accountant and AAO incentive syllabi)
- official — Constitution of India (Legislative Department, Ministry of Law and Justice)
official = a document published by the conducting body. reported = a news or coaching site we could not check against an original. Where sources disagree this page says so rather than picking one.
