FASTag: Tag issuance jumps 24% in November

The issuance of FASTag grew sharply by 24 per cent jump at 79.01 lakh last month over 63.71 lakh in October, more than 15 lakh FASTags issued.

New Delhi: Over 79 lakh FASTags, or radio-frequency identification tags used to pay tolls automatically on national highways have been issued until November 30, 2019, as per the latest data released by the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI).

The issuance of FASTags grew sharply by 24 per cent jump at 79.01 lakh last month over 63.71 lakh in October. For perspective, more than 15 lakh FASTags were issued in November alone—the highest its been since the FASTag programme in 2017. The Road Transport and Highways Ministry had introduced FASTags to allow cashless payment of user fee for near non-stop movement of vehicles through toll plazas.

In November 2019, the transaction count of FASTag stood at 3.49 lakh with transaction value amounting to Rs 773.95 crore, compared to a transaction count of 3.14 lakh and a transaction value of Rs 702.86 crore in October 2019. At present, 24 banks are live on National Electronic Toll Collection Platform issuing FASTag.

FASTag on fastrack: Tag issuance jumps 24% at 79 lakh in November

“Over 70 lakh FASTags are issued till date, with the highest per-day issuance of 1,35,583 tags on November 26, 2019, (Tuesday), whereas 1.03 lakh tags were issued on the day before. The average daily issuance has grown by 330 per cent from 8,000 in July to 35,000 tags sold in November 2019,” the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways said in a statement.

This massive growth in FASTag issuance mainly came due to waiving of tag cost from November 21, the ministry said adding that FASTag is accepted on more than 560 toll plazas and more number of plazas are getting added on a daily basis.

In terms of penetration, electronic toll charge collection from national highways, which was 25 per cent at the during at the beginning of this year, now stands at almost 40 per cent, as per NHAI data. On a daily basis, NHAI collects about 1.1 million FASTAg transactions amounting to Rs 20-25 crore.

FASTag is a government-issued smartcard with radio frequency identification (RFID) technology for paying toll charges via prepaid account linked to it. This tag is attached to the windscreen so that toll charges automatically gets deducted from the linked account whenever a vehicle drive through plazas. Last week the transport ministry extended the deadline for mandatory use of FASTags for payments at National Highway toll plazas to December 15 from December 1.

Source: http://bit.ly/33ZSLNq