NHAI Refunds 17.7 Lakh FASTag Toll Errors

The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) has refunded toll charges in about 17.7 lakh cases between January and December 2025 after money was wrongly deducted from FASTag wallets.

Officials said that in nearly 35% of these cases, the vehicles were not even present at the toll plaza when the toll fee was charged. This means many users were charged by mistake, even though they had not passed through the toll gate.

Most of these errors happened due to manual entry of vehicle details by toll operators. When there are technical problems with the FASTag scanner or system, operators sometimes enter the vehicle number manually. This can lead to mistakes, such as charging the wrong vehicle.

These wrong deductions have caused inconvenience to thousands of highway users, who then had to file complaints and wait for refunds.

To prevent such problems in the future, the road transport ministry is now considering removing the manual entry option completely. Officials believe that relying more on automatic digital systems will reduce human errors and make toll collection more accurate.

The ministry is reviewing the proposal and is expected to take a decision soon to ensure smoother and more reliable toll payments for FASTag users.