Of the 247 toll plazas where Paytm is the acquirer bank, 56 are run by different state agencies, 122 by NHAI and 65 are on highway stretches run by private concessionaires either on Build Operate Transfer model (BoT) or acquired through Toll Operate Transfer (ToT) mode of monetisation.
The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) has started the process of migrating its 247 toll plazas where Paytm Payments Bank is the facilitator of toll collection, to other banks.
Paytm is performing the role of acquirer bank at these toll plazas – deducting fee from individual fastags then by using the National Payment Corporation of India (NPCI) collecting the money from the issuers of those fastags. By the end of the day all the fee collected is transferred to the highway operator by the acquirer bank.
Of the 247 toll plazas where Paytm is the acquirer bank, 56 are run by different state agencies, 122 by NHAI and 65 are on highway stretches run by private concessionaires either on Build Operate Transfer model (BoT) or acquired through Toll Operate Transfer (ToT) mode of monetisation.
“The entire process of transfer will be completed before February 29. A war room has been set up at NHAI to facilitate the transition to other banks,” a senior official said.
According to some estimates there are around 1450 toll plazas in the country and more than 97% of the toll collection happens through fast tags. In FY23 total toll collection was Rs 48,028 crore and this year it is expected to touch around Rs 53,000 crore.
Apart from acting as an acquirer bank, Paytm was also a big issuer of fast tags accounting for 30% or about 1.8 crore of the total around 7.98 crore tags issued. As the Reserve Bank of India has barred transactions by Paytm Payment Bank by February 29, the holders of fast tags issued by the bank will not be able to add value.
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The holders of Paytm fast tags will, however, be able to withdraw money already added to their account. They can also use the existing balance in the Paytm fastag to pay for toll till March 15.
NHAI has also removed Paytm from the list of authorised banks that can issue fastags. The banks on the list of 32 authorised to issue fastags include all state-owned, private banks, some cooperative banks, Airtel Payments Bank and A U Small Finance Bank.
