NEW DELHI: If your FASTag fails to scan and you pay cash at a highway toll plaza, that money may never reach the National Highways Authority of India.

The Enforcement Directorate has found it can disappear into a parallel network of fake receipts and private accounts. On Sunday, the ED said toll operators used unauthorised mobile apps, including “Mobdata” and “Any,” to generate counterfeit receipts for cash-paying vehicles. The collections never entered NHAI’s official books.

The practice, investigators found, was systematic across plazas in several states. The scam largely hits drivers of older vehicles, trucks and commercial fleets yet to shift fully to FASTag. Even motorists with valid tags are sometimes forced to pay cash when barriers or scanners fail, with the cash diverted.

ED teams raided locations in West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra and Rajasthan on September 2 as part of a money-laundering probe. The case began with a complaint from Lucknow and an FIR dated January 1, 2025. An Enforcement Case Information Report followed on May 19 last year.

The investigation centres on large-scale fraudulent collection at Atraila toll plaza in Mirzapur and other plazas nationwide. In January 2025, Uttar Pradesh Police had already exposed the use of an illegal app at the Atraila Shiv Gulam plaza to collect tolls from vehicles without sufficient FASTag balance and conceal the money from NHAI.

Forensic examination of seized devices showed the unauthorised apps were deployed at around 100 plazas. Digital records pointed to unauthorised receipts running into crores. Intermediaries and some NHAI-entrusted toll operators are under the scanner.Searches have so far recovered about Rs 1.03 crore in cash.

Lens on toll collection entities India : The ED probe begain after a complaint from Lucknow related to large-scale fraudulent toll collection at Atraila Toll Plaza, Mirzapur, and various other toll plazas across the nation. 

ED officials found that illegal apps used to generate fake receipts and conceal collections from NHAI’s official system. The probe found involvement of intermediaries and toll collection entities, entrusted by NHAI, in the scam