FASTag-based toll collection rose 55% from 2016-17 to 2022-21, says govt

Toll collection through FASTag jumped 54.63% since its introduction in 2016-17 to 2020-21, the Ministry of Road Transport & Highways said on Wednesday. 

The user fee collection at fee plazas of the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) stood at Rs 17942.14 crore in 2016-17, Rs 21948.13 crore in 2017-18, Rs 24396.20 crore in 2018-19, Rs 26850.71 crore in 2019-20, and Rs 27744.15 crore in 2020-21. 

"To implement Electronic Toll Collection through FASTag, a Program Management Fee (% of Electronic Toll Collection transaction value) of 1.50%, 1.25%, 0.25% and 1% was approved for Issuer Bank, Acquirer Bank, National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) and Indian Highways Management Company Limited (IHMCL), respectively, for the period up to 31st March 2021," Nitin Gadkari, Union Minister for Road Transport and Highways informed in a written reply in the Rajya Sabha. 

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The user fee at the public-funded fee plaza is collected by the user fee collection agency selected on the basis of competitive bidding and the amount remitted by the agency under the contract is deposited to the Consolidated Fund of India, he added. 

Meanwhile, FASTag toll collection recorded an all-time high of 214.23 million (about 21.42 crore) transactions in October worth Rs 3,356 crore, indicating higher economic and transport-related activities, particularly during the festive season.

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According to the government data, toll collection through FASTag recorded 193.6 million transactions amounting to Rs 3,000 crore in September, while in August, it had recorded 201.2 million transactions worth 3,076.56 crore. 

The government had made FASTags mandatory from February 15 midnight, and all plazas of National Highway and road highway collect user fees only through FASTag.