NHAI Refunds Toll in 17.7 Lakh FASTag Cases

The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) refunded toll charges in nearly 17.7 lakh FASTag transactions between January and December 2025 after detecting incorrect user fee deductions, the government informed Parliament on Thursday. Notably, in around 35 per cent of these cases, the vehicles were not even present at the toll plaza when the amount was debited from the FASTag wallet.

Union road transport and highways minister Nitin Gadkari, in a written reply to the Lok Sabha, stated that the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI), which manages the Central Clearing House services for electronic toll collection, reported 17.6 lakh refund cases during the period. These refunds were processed out of a massive total of 464 crore FASTag transactions recorded nationwide in 2025.

Although the faulty transactions account for just about 0.03 per cent of total FASTag usage, officials said such errors are avoidable and create unnecessary inconvenience for commuters. According to government sources, a significant portion of these incorrect deductions occurred due to manual entry of vehicle registration numbers by toll operators, typically when FASTag scanning faces technical issues.

An official familiar with the matter said the ministry is actively considering doing away with the manual feeding of vehicle numbers altogether. “Even though the number of such transactions is minuscule, these errors should not occur. Manual entry increases the risk of incorrect vehicle details being recorded, leading to wrongful toll deductions and added hassle for road users,” the official said.

The road transport ministry highlighted that the FASTag system has significantly improved efficiency at toll plazas across the country. With electronic tolling, the average waiting time for vehicles at toll plazas has dropped sharply to around 40 seconds, compared to nearly 12.2 minutes per vehicle under the earlier manual toll collection system.

In a separate written response to another question in Parliament, the ministry also shared data on toll revenue collection. During the first three quarters of the financial year 2025–26, toll collections across national highways and expressways stood at Rs 50,195 crore.

For the entire previous financial year, toll revenue amounted to Rs 61,508 crore, reflecting the expanding national highway network and increased adoption of FASTag-based electronic tolling.

The government has repeatedly emphasised its focus on improving transparency, efficiency and commuter convenience on highways. The proposed move to eliminate manual vehicle number entry at toll plazas is expected to further reduce errors and strengthen trust in the FASTag system.