Toll mopup rises 12.5% in FY25 to an all-time high

NEW DELHI: India's toll collection touched an all-time high in FY25 at ?72,931 crore, an increase of 12.5%, with the number of instances of toll use climbing about a tenth.

"Various factors contribute to the annual increase in user fee collection such as increase in traffic on the highways, the annual increase in user fee rates to factor in inflation, and addition of new tollable road lengths for better travel experience," a senior government official said.

Road travel during the Kumbh mela added an additional 2-3% to toll revenue, experts said.

In FY24, toll collections stood at ?64,810 crore. The usage climbed to 4.2 billion, from 3.8 billion.

However, the pace of growth, both in terms of volume and value, has slowed down over the past four years since 2021-22.

While the toll volume witnessed a year-on-year growth of 64.5% in 2022-23 and 10.1% in 2023-24, the toll collection has seen a surge of 53% in 2022-23 and 19.9% in 2023-24.

Toll rates are revised on an average by 3-5% every year with effect from April 1 and are linked to changes in the wholesale price index-based inflation. Jagannarayan Padmanabhan, senior director and global head, consulting, Crisil market intelligence and analytics said the uptick is attributable to the continuous addition of national highways and wider adoption of FASTAG based tolling.


"Major gatherings for the Kumbh mela have given a slight fillip to the overall collection," he said, adding that the average toll collection should stabilise at 9-10% growth in the medium term which is three-five years.

Government data shows Uttar Pradesh has traditionally been the highest toll revenue generator for the Centre. In 2024-25, the state emerged as the highest toll revenue collector at Rs 7060 crore till February 2025 followed by Rajasthan (Rs 5967.13 crore), Maharashtra (Rs 5115.38), Gujarat (Rs 4874.15 crore) and Karnataka (Rs 4002.46 crore).

While the annual base rates are uniform on all national highways throughout the country under the National Highways Fee (Determination of Rates & Collection) Rules, 2008, various factors such as lane configuration, length of section, length of bypasses and structures or tunnels and type of vehicle are considered in determining the rate of user fee at a fee plaza for use of a particular section of national highway, resulting in variance in toll rates.