PO & RMS Accountant Exam Syllabus: Paper I and Paper II, Rule by Rule

The PO & RMS Accountant Examination is the departmental test that decides which Postal and Sorting Assistants may work the accounts branch of a post office or RMS unit. It is small, circle-run and rarely written about well, and its syllabus is unusual: both papers are open-book, and two-thirds of every paper is practical work. You are not being asked to remember rules. You are being asked to find the right rule fast and then work a sum correctly with it.

The syllabus now in force is the Directorate's letter X-8/2/2022-SPN-II dated 18.04.2023. It replaced the syllabus of 17.01.1990 and restated the pattern of 10.11.1989 unchanged, and it applies to every exam held after the letter was issued. Circles reprint it in their notifications, so the text below is taken from the copy enclosed with Odisha's notification of 08.09.2026 for the exam on 1 November 2026.

DoP letter X-8/2/2022-SPN-II dated 18.04.2023.

Paper I is the paper of calculation. In the Tamil Nadu paper of 10.09.2023, the one circle paper whose full worked key is published, a single question on one retiring official asked for the last pay, qualifying service, pension, family pension, gratuity, commutation and leave encashment, worth 25 marks with its second part. Another asked for a year of GPF interest (15 marks), another for pay fixation on promotion under both options (15 marks). The practical-questions guide works each of them step by step.

Two printing quirks are worth knowing. The letter writes CGHS out as "Central Government Health Insurance Scheme", and it calls the SAP payroll book the "HR pay role management Manual". Neither changes what you study. The Tamil Nadu 2023 Paper II shows how these items are asked: ten one-mark objective questions whose keyed answers include Government e-Marketplace, Rs 25,000, CPMG/PMG, the SAP transaction zfi_pos_bal, one year and Rs 5,000; then descriptive questions on overtime limits (6 hours on working days, 8 on Sundays and holidays), on the retrenchment register (FHB I Rule 85), attachment of pay (FHB I Rule 174), the last pay certificate (FHB I Rules 181-182), bid security (GFR 170), buy-back (GFR 176), a CGHS package-rate claim, HBA admissibility, a Group Insurance calculation and SAP HR transactions.

The 2023 letter says the syllabus was changed "due to various change of rules and procedure" to meet present-day requirements. Reading the lists, the additions a candidate who prepared from old material would miss are clear: the New Pension Scheme rules beside the 1972 pension rules; the Gramin Dak Sevak service rules; the SAP (Core System Integration) manuals for accounts and payroll; and procurement under the GFR and the Handbook on GeM. The 1990 syllabus text is not reprinted by any circle, so we cannot list line by line what was removed; the safe course is to prepare only from the 2023 list. One official consequence is recorded: the Directorate told Maharashtra on 16.10.2023 that exemptions earned under the old syllabus remain valid "to the extent as per pattern", because the pattern did not change.

Because each paper is 30 marks of theory and 70 of practicals, the question to ask of every rule is "what sum can they set on this?". For Paper I the answer is obvious: pension, gratuity, commutation, encashment, GPF interest, pay fixation, transfer TA, leave accounts. For Paper II it is less obvious but just as real: an HBA admissibility calculation, a CGHS package claim, a Group Insurance payout, an overtime claim, an interest table on an advance, a bid security. Practise one of each until you can do it from the book in the time a 3-hour paper allows, then read the theory around it.

The Gramin Dak Sevak rules are the easiest marks on Paper I because they are short and the questions are factual: in 2023 each of five GDS items was worth 2 marks, on maternity leave, emergency leave, the ex gratia while put off duty, voluntary discharge and termination. Do not skip them because they seem out of place in an accounts exam.

The PO & RMS Accountant exam is taken by PAs and SAs who already passed the entry exam described in our PA/SA LDCE guide. It does not change your seniority or your cadre. Since 11.02.2025 it also no longer leads to a separate LSG or HSG Accountant line; the guide on the 2025 merger explains what passing now does for you.