BACKGROUND Urine cytology when combined with cystoscopy remains a gold standard in screening and surveillance of urothelial carcinoma. Paris system for reporting urine cytology (PSRUC) gives seven well defined diagnostic criteria. We aimed to analyse utility of urine cytology in patients with urogenital symptoms, compare existing institutional system (EIS) with PSRUC and assess the performance of both reporting systems in predicting subsequent high-grade urothelial carcinoma on histopathology. METHODS A five year retrospective study included a total of 146 urine samples from 74 patients. Each case was assigned a category according to both EIS and PSRUC system. After cyto-histological correlation, sensitivity, specificity and diagnostic accuracy of urine cytology in detecting malignancy using PSRUC and EIS were determined. Performance of urine cytology in predicting subsequent high grade urothelial carcinoma (HGUC) was assessed for both reporting systems. RESULTS PSRUC resulted in reduction in number of cases assigned to atypical category (10.5 % vs. 3.4 %) and increase in low grade carcinomas assigned to NGUC category (66 % vs. 100 %). Positive predictive value (PPV) for predicting subsequent high grade urothelial carcinoma for HGUC and SHGUC category remained the same (100 %). Sensitivity (66.67 % vs. 55.5 %), specificity (100 % vs. 85.71 %) and diagnostic accuracy (81 % vs. 68.75 %) was improved with application of PSRUC when compared to EIS. Two cases of genitourinary tuberculosis were diagnosed. CONCLUSIONS PSRUC improves predictive accuracy of subsequent high-grade urothelial carcinoma on histopathology and it ensures uniformity in reporting. Judicious use of urine cytology might aid in early diagnosis of infectious conditions like tuberculosis. KEYWORDS PSRUC, Urine Cytology, High Grade Urothelial Carcinoma