FASTag collections top Rs 4,000 crore in March, FY22 mop-up Rs 38,000 crore

Almost a third of the toll revenue came in the last quarter of the financial year alone

With growing mobility and increasing FASTag adoption, toll revenues on the platform reached Rs 4,095 crore in March, the highest since the digital toll collection system was introduced in 2016. This is the first time toll collections through FASTag crossed Rs 4,000 crore.

With March numbers in, highway toll collections through FASTag for the full fiscal year stood at Rs 38,084 crore, or 68 per cent higher than the previous year. The mop-up for March was almost 33 per cent higher than the corresponding period last year.

Almost a third of the toll revenue came in the last quarter of the financial year.

On a sequential basis, toll collections through the platform grew almost 13 per cent over February. Over 27 crore FASTag transactions were recorded during the month with the system reaching almost 5 crore tag issuances, data by the National Payments Corporation of India shows.

The central government had declared all lanes of fee plazas on national highways as FASTag lanes in February last year.

Union minister for road transport and highways Nitin Gadkari had earlier stated that FASTag adoption in passenger vehicles had reached 97 per cent and the ministry is working to identify causes for non-adoption among the remaining highway commuters.

The ministry’s secretary Giridhar Aramane has also said that the department is eyeing a toll revenue collection of over Rs 35,000 crore in 2022-23, with a medium-term aim of half a trillion rupees by the end of 2025.

Recently, the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) also hiked toll rates for 2022-23. Toll rates are linked to the Wholesale Price Index (WPI), which has remained at elevated levels. Since April 2021, the key economic indicator has seen double-digit percentage growth.

Wholesale inflation in February was at 13.11 per cent.