NEET-PG 2025: Cut-off slashed to zero to fill 18,000 seats

With over 18,000 postgraduate medical seats across the country remaining vacant, the National Board of Examinations in Medical Sciences (NBEMS) has revised the qualifying percentiles for NEET-PG 2025 admissions, reducing it to zero percentile from 40 percentile for reserved categories.

According to the notice published by NBEMS on Tuesday, the NEET PG cutoff for the general category has been reduced to seven percentile from 50. The decision follows the completion of round two counselling.

Official sources said the revision aims to ensure optimal utilisation of available seats, which are vital for expanding India’s pool of trained medical specialists.

Leaving such seats vacant undermines efforts to improve healthcare delivery and results in the loss of valuable educational resources, the sources said.

NEET-PG serves as a ranking mechanism to facilitate transparent, merit-based allocation of seats through centralised counselling.

The previous percentile thresholds had restricted the pool of eligible candidates despite the availability of seats.

Listing the key highlights, official sources said the admissions remain strictly merit-based, determined by NEET-PG rank and candidate preferences. Allotments will be made only through authorised counselling mechanisms and no direct or discretionary admissions are permitted. Inter-se merit and choice-based allocation will continue to guide seat distribution, the sources said. The sources said there will be no dilution of academic standards and that the revised percentile merely expands eligibility among already-qualified MBBS doctors. Transparency and fairness remain central to the process, it had added.

The Indian Medical Association (IMA) had formally requested a revision of the qualifying cut-off on January 12, citing the need to prevent seat wastage and strengthen healthcare services.