Updates as of September 22, 2026
The nearest confirmed sitting is the departmental examination for confirmation of Inspectors of Central Tax and Central Excise, notified for 11 February 2026 to 13 February 2026 and listed against NACIN Zonal Campus Lucknow. It appears among the current notifications on the National Academy of Customs, Indirect Taxes and Narcotics website alongside the other examinations of the 2025-26 cycle.
NACINAs at 22 September 2026 no notification for a 2026-27 promotion examination to the grade of Inspector has appeared on NACIN's departmental officers page. The most recent item of that kind indexed there is the promotion examination to the grade of Inspector covering Central Excise, Preventive Officer and Examiner for April 2025, with a notification file on nacin.gov.in labelled August 2025. Candidates should not assume a date.
NACIN notificationNACIN publishes an Annual Calendar of Departmental Examinations for each financial year, and the calendar for 2025-26 is carried on its departmental officers page. The calendar, rather than any single notification, is the document that sets out which cadre examinations fall in which part of the year, and it is the first place to look when a cycle date is being sought.
NACIN annual calendarThe 2024-25 and 2025-26 cycles show the grades being examined separately rather than together. The confirmation examination for Appraisers, Examiners and Preventive Officers was held from 5 to 7 March 2025, a confirmation examination for Examiners and Preventive Officers ran from 19 to 21 February 2025 under file number NACIN/TRNG/EXAM/DE/3/2023-TRNG, and confirmation of Inspectors of Central Tax and Central Excise ran from 19 to 21 March 2025.
NACIN, Departmental OfficersResults are published on the same page as the notifications. The statement of marks for the departmental examination for confirmation of Inspectors held from 7 to 9 August 2024 has been declared there. A separate revised notice covered the confirmation examination for Inspectors of the Central Bureau of Narcotics on 19 and 20 June 2025, which is a distinct cadre from the Central Tax and Central Excise Inspectors.
NACIN, Departmental OfficersAdjacent cadre examinations in the same 2025-26 cycle give a sense of the pace of notification: examination notices are carried for confirmation of Multi-Tasking Staff, for promotion of Group C employees to Lower Division Clerk, for confirmation of Stenographer Grade II, for confirmation of Upper Division Clerks and Lower Division Clerks of the Central Bureau of Narcotics, and for promotion of Lower Division Clerks and Head Havaldars to Tax Assistant.
NACIN, Departmental OfficersCBIC departmental examination at a glance
| Item | Detail |
|---|---|
| Conducting body | NACIN, the training academy under CBIC |
| Grades covered here | Inspectors, Preventive Officers, Examiners, Appraisers |
| Two distinct exams | Confirmation in grade, and promotion to the grade of Inspector |
| Planning document | Annual Calendar of Departmental Examinations, per financial year |
| Recent sitting length | Three consecutive days in the 2024-25 and 2025-26 cycles |
| Where notices appear | NACIN departmental officers page and the NACIN home page |
Confirmation examinations and promotion examinations are separate things that share a conducting body and a web page. A confirmation examination tests an officer already appointed to a grade, including direct recruits, and is tied to probation. The promotion examination to the grade of Inspector is the route by which Preventive Officers, Examiners and other feeder grades move up. Mixing the two up is the most common cause of officers watching the wrong notification.
Dates and windows
| What | When | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Confirmation examination, Inspectors of Central Tax and Central Excise | 11 to 13 February 2026, NACIN Zonal Campus Lucknow | Confirmed |
| Promotion examination to the grade of Inspector, next cycle | Not notified on NACIN's site as at 22 September 2026 | Tentative |
| Promotion examination to the grade of Inspector, last published cycle | April 2025, Central Excise, Preventive Officer and Examiner | Closed |
| Confirmation examination, Appraisers, Examiners and Preventive Officers | 5 to 7 March 2025 | Closed |
| Confirmation examination, Examiners and Preventive Officers | 19 to 21 February 2025 | Closed |
| Confirmation examination, Inspectors of Central Tax and Central Excise, 2024-25 cycle | 19 to 21 March 2025 | Closed |
| Confirmation examination, Inspectors of the Central Bureau of Narcotics | 19 and 20 June 2025, under a revised notice | Closed |
| Marks, confirmation examination for Inspectors held 7 to 9 August 2024 | Declared on the NACIN departmental officers page | Closed |
Only the February 2026 confirmation examination is a forward-looking confirmed date in this list; the rest record what the 2024-25 and 2025-26 cycles actually did, which is the only honest basis for estimating when the next cycle will fall. No date for the next promotion examination to the grade of Inspector has been published, and none is projected here.
Source: NACIN home · NACIN, Departmental Officers
What this means for your preparation
The recurring error in this examination family is watching the wrong notice. NACIN runs several separate examinations for adjacent grades on one page, and the words confirmation and promotion carry entirely different consequences. A Preventive Officer looking for the route into the Inspector grade needs the promotion examination notification; the confirmation notices that appear more frequently are about probation in a grade already held.
Confirmation and promotion are not the same exam
The notifications on NACIN's departmental officers page fall into two families. Confirmation examinations are held for officers already in a grade, including direct recruits on probation, and the 2024-25 and 2025-26 cycles show separate ones for Inspectors of Central Tax and Central Excise, for Appraisers, Examiners and Preventive Officers, for Inspectors of the Central Bureau of Narcotics, and for Executive Assistants. The promotion examination to the grade of Inspector is a different instrument with its own notification, its own eligibility and its own cycle, and in the published record it appeared for April 2025. Reading a confirmation notice and assuming it opens a promotion route is a straightforward way to miss a year.
The annual calendar is the planning document
NACIN publishes an Annual Calendar of Departmental Examinations for each financial year and carries it on the same page as the individual notices; the 2025-26 edition is currently indexed there. Individual notifications usually confirm dates that the calendar has already indicated, which means the calendar is where a candidate finds out roughly when to be ready, and the notification is where the exact dates, the reporting instructions and the zonal campus are fixed. Officers who only monitor the notifications tend to learn their dates with a few weeks of notice; officers who read the calendar at the start of the financial year have months. Check whether a 2026-27 calendar has been posted before relying on the 2025-26 one.
Three-day windows, and zonal campuses matter
Every recent sitting in this family has run across three consecutive days rather than a single day: 19 to 21 February 2025, 5 to 7 March 2025, 19 to 21 March 2025, and the forthcoming 11 to 13 February 2026. That shape implies multiple papers spread across the window rather than one composite paper, so leave planning for the whole block. The February 2026 confirmation examination is listed against NACIN Zonal Campus Lucknow, a reminder that these examinations are administered through zonal campuses; the campus named in the notification, not the officer's posting, determines where the examination is written and how much travel and leave to arrange.
Treat the notification as the only authority on structure
Paper lists, marks, permitted books and the number of chances for these examinations are set by departmental examination rules and are stated in the notification and its annexures, which NACIN publishes in English and Hindi with annexures numbered I to III for at least one recent confirmation examination. Those documents are the operative text. Coaching summaries and forum posts describing the paper pattern circulate widely and are often several rules-revisions out of date, and this page does not reproduce a pattern it has not read in the notification itself. Download the notification and its annexures for the specific examination and cadre, and check the file number, for example NACIN/TRNG/EXAM/DE/3/2023-TRNG on the February 2025 notice.
Watch two pages, not one
Items surface in slightly different places. The dedicated departmental officers page on nacin.gov.in carries the archive of notifications, annexures, the annual calendar and statements of marks, while the NACIN home page carries the newest notices, which is where the February 2026 confirmation examination for Central Tax and Central Excise Inspectors is visible, in that case as a Hindi notification. CBIC's own departmental officers section is the third place where rules and circulars for these grades are published. Results follow the same route: the statement of marks for the confirmation examination held from 7 to 9 August 2024 was published on the departmental officers page rather than issued separately.
Common questions
When is the next CBIC departmental examination for Inspectors?
The next confirmed sitting is the departmental examination for confirmation of Inspectors of Central Tax and Central Excise, notified for 11 to 13 February 2026 and listed against NACIN Zonal Campus Lucknow. That is a confirmation examination, not a promotion examination. For the promotion examination to the grade of Inspector covering Central Excise, Preventive Officer and Examiner, no notification for the next cycle had appeared on NACIN's departmental officers page as at 22 September 2026, and the most recent published cycle there was April 2025.
Who conducts this examination?
The National Academy of Customs, Indirect Taxes and Narcotics, usually abbreviated to NACIN, which is the training academy of the Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs. NACIN issues the notifications, publishes the annual calendar of departmental examinations, administers the sittings through its zonal campuses and declares the statements of marks. CBIC's own website carries a departmental officers section covering rules and circulars for these grades. Notifications for individual examinations name the zonal campus responsible; the February 2026 confirmation examination for Inspectors is listed under the Lucknow zonal campus.
What is the difference between the confirmation examination and the promotion examination?
A confirmation examination is taken by an officer who already holds the grade, typically a direct recruit, and is tied to confirmation in service. The promotion examination to the grade of Inspector is the qualifying route for feeder grades, and NACIN's notification for it is titled for promotion to the grade of Inspector covering Central Excise, Preventive Officer and Examiner. Both appear on the same NACIN page and both are described as departmental examinations, which is why they are frequently confused, but they have separate notifications, separate eligibility and separate dates.
Where do I find the paper pattern and the number of chances allowed?
In the notification itself and its annexures, which NACIN publishes for each examination, in English and Hindi, with annexures for at least one recent confirmation examination numbered I to III. Those documents carry the paper list, the marks, the permitted materials and the chance rules under the departmental examination rules in force for that cycle. This page does not restate a pattern it has not read in the notification, because the rules have been revised more than once and second-hand summaries go stale quickly. Notifications are indexed on the NACIN departmental officers page.
Has the promotion examination for 2026-27 been notified?
Not as far as the public record shows. On 22 September 2026, NACIN's departmental officers page carried no notification for a 2026-27 promotion examination to the grade of Inspector. The most recent item of that type indexed there relates to the April 2025 cycle, with a file on nacin.gov.in labelled August 2025. Rather than project a date from the previous cycle, watch the NACIN home page and the departmental officers page, and check whether an annual calendar for 2026-27 has been posted alongside the 2025-26 one.
How are results declared?
Through the same NACIN departmental officers page that carries the notifications. The statement of marks for the departmental examination for confirmation of Inspectors held from 7 to 9 August 2024 was declared there, and marks for other cadre examinations in the 2025-26 cycle, including the promotion examination from Havaldar and Multi-Tasking Staff to Lower Division Clerk held on 16 June 2025, have been published in the same way with paper-wise statements. There is no separate results portal for these examinations, so the page to bookmark is the departmental officers page itself.
