Did you pay too much at the toll plaza? Users received refunds for 12.55 lakh of these cases in 2024.

The toll fare calculation inaccuracy accounts for the largest portion of all improper deductions. In 2024, refunds were issued for more than 5 lakh of these cases. This was followed by 4.45 lakh examples of tag holder not recognizing the transaction. A total of 1.36 lakh cases of “duplicate transaction done at toll plaza,” 1.25 cases of “return journey not provided,” and approximately 47,000 cases of “Paid by other means” were also refunded in 2024.

Gadkari stated that the toll agency would be penalized Rs. 1 lakh for each instance in which a vehicle charged the toll without actually crossing the toll plaza.

The Minister stated, “The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) receives a monthly statement of false deduction cases from toll-free number 1033. Following an investigation, a penalty of Rs. 1 lakh is imposed on user fee collecting agencies for each legitimate case.”

He added that when user fee collecting organizations manually create VRN-based transactions, they occasionally enter the wrong Vehicle Registration Number (VRN) into the system, resulting in vehicles being charged toll costs even when they are not on a National Highway or Expressway.

Sometimes, numerous readings by FASTag readers result in duplicate charge. To deter manual VRN-based transactions, user fee collecting organizations are subject to a penalty of Rs. 1 lakh each case, according to Gadkari.

The NHAI banned 14 User Fee Collection Agencies on Thursday for engaging in irregular fee collection activities at toll plazas as part of its ongoing action in such situations. Additionally, a special task force from Uttar Pradesh carried out operations for these purposes at the Atraila Shiv Ghulam Toll Plaza in the Mirzapur area.

“It was determined that the fee collection agencies’ responses were insufficient. In a statement, NHAI stated that the agencies had been blacklisted for two years for breaching the terms of the contract.