E-Paper
About 100 highway plazas illegally collected tolls from vehicles without FASTag, says ED
Unauthorised online apps like Mobdata and Any were used by about 100 toll plazas across India to collect toll fees illegally.
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The Enforcement Directorate (ED) claimed that about 100 highway plazas across India, run by NHAI-authorised entities, used two unauthorised apps to collect illegal tolls worth crores of rupees from vehicles not bearing FASTag stickers. The ED said in a statement that it undertook multi-state searches to probe these allegations on September 2 and raided 14 premises located in Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, West Bengal and Delhi-NCR.
PTI reported that the ED identified the unauthorised online apps as Mobdata and Any, which were used by about 100 toll plazas across India to collect toll fees illegally from vehicles bearing no FASTag stickers. These apps were reportedly developed and deployed to facilitate the collection of toll fees from vehicles not bearing FASTag stickers, and portals were maintained for monitoring such illegal toll collection, the ED reportedly said. "Forensic examination of digital devices seized from accused revealed that this mechanism was used on around 100 toll plazas, and unauthorised toll receipts running in crores from the digital records have been recorded," it reportedly added.
The ED reportedly filed a criminal case under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) to probe these charges after taking cognisance of a January 2025 FIR filed by the Mirzapur district police in Uttar Pradesh on allegations of large-scale fraudulent toll collection at the local Atraila Shiv Gulam toll plaza and some other such plazas across the country. The police complaint reportedly stated that the illegal apps were used to generate fake receipts and conceal collections from the National Highways Authority of India's (NHAI) official system, bypassing lawful toll reporting, thereby causing a revenue loss to the authority.
The ED also reportedly said that its probe indicates involvement of intermediaries and toll collection entities, entrusted by the NHAI, in the deployment of unauthorised applications. It said to have identified a wider network of toll plazas and persons/entities which requires further examination.
What is FASTag?
FASTag is an RFID passive tag or sticker used for making toll payments directly from the customer's linked prepaid, savings, or current account. It is affixed to the windshield of the vehicle and enables the customer to drive through toll plazas without stopping for any toll payments. The FASTag-based toll collection process was introduced by the government to enhance the transactional efficiency and transparency of the toll collection system and also to smooth highway traffic.
