New Delhi: The cost of toll collection came down from Rs 4,736 crore in FY 2023-24 to Rs 2,674 crore in FY 2024-25, resulting in savings of Rs 2,062 crore for NHAI, the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways said on Thursday. In percentage terms, the cost of toll collection decreased from 17.27 per cent in FY 2023-24 to 9.27 per cent in FY 2024-25. 

The ‘cost of toll collection’ is the difference between the Toll Fee collected by the tolling agencies and the amount remitted to NHAI at public-funded toll plazas. In FY 2023-24, total toll collected by the toll agencies amounted to Rs 27,417 crore, out of which about Rs 22,681 crore were remitted to NHAI. 

However, in FY 2024-25, the toll agencies collected a total of about Rs 28,823 crore as toll fees, out of which around Rs 26,149 crore were remitted to NHAI.

The savings in cost of toll collection resulted primarily due to various initiatives taken by NHAI, like close monitoring of current contracts, deletion of provision for deemed extension of three months, timely bidding, ensuring the maximum contracts for one-year duration are awarded and short-term contracts of three months are minimised. 

Moreover, measures were taken to drastically reduce short-term three-month contracts, limiting only three premature termination requests during a financial year and restricting the same contractor in bidding of the toll plaza, for which he submitted the premature termination request.

Also, NHAI has been regularly engaging with the ‘All India User Fee Collection Federation’ to address issues and challenges faced by the toll collection agencies to build confidence and increase participation in toll bids. 

According to a ministry statement, the timely release of performance security (cash part) and bank guarantees of the toll collection agencies further enhanced their bidding capabilities, resulting in higher bid amounts. 

Apart from this, to avoid any windfall gains to the toll collection agencies, a ‘Windfall Gain’ clause was also introduced in the agreements, under which the contract of the toll collection agency can be terminated if the moving average of toll collection in the last 15 days is more than 40 per cent of the remittance paid to NHAI.