Amid the increasing concerns of delays on toll passes, The National Highway Authority Sought to resolve the issues by announcing Rs 3,000 FASTag annual pass for private vehicles. But a recent report, has elucidated how such passes could hamper the revenue streams of the Toll operators. A CRISIL report has detailed that toll road operators revenue would shrink by 4-8% as per a ratings assessment released on June 25.
These ratings have been ascertained by analyzing 40 operational toll road projects to evaluate the impact of the new Pricing structure, which would be effective from August 15,2025. The Annual pass would apply to private vehicles, cars, vans and jeeps covering over to 200 trips or One-Year access from activation date on National highways and national expressways. Private vehicles currently pay up to Rs 70-80 per trip, hence the annual pass would be able to help the travelers save up to 80% or close to Rs 55-65 per trip, when utilized for maximum 200 trips.
The New Compensation process would lead to consultation between the stakeholders and finalization of implementation necessities, this can potentially cause delays in reimbursement to operators. However CRISIL profiles ratings would expect the credit risk profiles of rated toll operators to remain stable during the Transition period.
The challenge with the new system would be that Toll Operators would require and seek compensation from NHAI rather than collecting payments directly from the users as they pass through the Toll gates. CRISIL has further raised an intimation indicating that higher than expected adoption rate of such passes could lead to greater interim revenue losses requiring Monitoring.
The CRISIL assessment covered debt coverage service ratios and Liquidity positions of rated Toll Road projects , with Toll road operators managing to procure and keep enough cash flow coverage to maintain the transition period before compensation mechanisms are fully implemented.
Says Anand Kulkarni, Director, CRISIL Ratings, “Private vehicles form 35-40% 3 of the overall traffic plying on the stretches in our sample. In terms of revenue, the share is lower at 25-30%. Assuming a third of these vehicles purchase the annual pass, revenue of toll operators will be impacted by 4-8%. This may need to be compensated for. Timely finalization of the compensation mechanism and swift implementation will reinforce the confidence of the private sector which plays a key role in funding the growth of the sector.”
Also Read: Vinfast VF6 Spotted Testing Without Camouflage- What’s A Left Hand Drive Variant Doing In India?
