Nearly 13-Lakh Refunds Made For Faulty Toll Collections On National Highways In 2024
Vehicles are being incorrectly charged toll fees due to errors made by user fee-collecting agencies when manually entering vehicle registration numbers.
The Union government has issued 12.55 lakh refunds for faulty toll collections on national highways in 2024, according to Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari.
The minister said penalties exceeding Rs 2 crore have been imposed on user fee collecting agencies for incorrect deductions.
Gadkari said if toll agencies were found responsible for incorrect user fee deduction, as per Clause-15 of the Contract Agreement, a 30-50x penalty on excess user fee will be imposed on the fee collecting agency.
"National Payment Corporation of India, which provides the Central Clearing House services of National Electronic Toll Collection Programme, has reported 12.55 lakh transactions where refunds were made due to incorrect user fee (toll) deductions in the year 2024 out of a total of 410 crore FASTag transactions in the same year which represents 0.03% of all FASTag transactions," Gadkari said.
The minister also informed that National Highways Authority of India has barred 14 toll collection agencies for irregular activities following a probe after Uttar Pradesh STF unearthed a fraud. Based on the FIR, NHAI had served a ‘Show Cause Notice’ to defaulting agencies.
"Based on the FIR, 13 user fee collecting agencies have also been debarred for a period of two (2) years," he said.
Vehicles are being incorrectly charged toll fees due to errors made by user fee-collecting agencies when manually entering vehicle registration numbers. Additionally, double charging can occur when FASTag readers take multiple readings.
To address these issues, Gadkari announced that the National Highways Authority of India is considering installing audit cameras at high-value toll plazas. These cameras will utilise artificial intelligence to accurately count and classify vehicles.
User fee rates are determined by the NH-Fee Rules, 2008, which are displayed at each fee plaza. An Advanced Traffic Management System has been installed across 325 National Highway projects with a total length of around 20,000 km.
The government envisions the development of wayside amenities at approximate intervals of 40-60 km along NHs.
"The Ministry of Road Transport & Highways has planned to award around 700+ WSAs," Gadkari said, adding that a total of 393 WSAs had been awarded so far, out of which 94 are operational.
Replying to another question, Gadkari said the National Highways Authority of India has raised Rs 6,661 crore through toll, operate, and transfer mode for the financial year 2024-25 till date.
In addition, the bids for the projects under TOT-15 (land parcels) are under evaluation, he added.
As of March 17, 2025, a total of 26,367 public electronic vehicle charging stations are deployed across the country, the minister said, adding that 10,019 public EV charging stations have been deployed during fiscal 2024-25 across the country.
(With Inputs From PTI)
