India gears up for FASTag, a ready reckoner

The Centre’s earlier deadline mandating FASTags by December 1 had been postponed to December 15 to provide some more time to citizens to buy and put FASTag on their vehicles.

In a move aimed to give a major fillip to enhance digital payments and reduce bottlenecks at national highways, the Centre has mandated that all lanes of national highways toll plazas to be declared as “ FASTag lanes ” by December 15, 2019.

As India gears up for FASTag, a ready reckoner

One lane, however, will be kept as a ‘hybrid’ lane at toll booths allowing cash payment for the earlier roll out phases, the National Highway Authority (NHAI) of India has said.

The Centre’s earlier deadline mandating FASTags by December 1 had been postponed to December 15 to provide some more time to citizens to buy and put FASTag on their vehicles.

To expedite its sale before the deadline, Union Minister for Road Transport and Highways, Nitin Gadkari, had also announced last month that all FASTags sold by NHAI will be given free of cost till December 15.

The average daily transactions under FASTags have grown from 8.8 lakh in July to 11.2 lakh in November. The average daily collection has also grown from Rs11.2 crore to Rs 19.5 crore for the given period.

The issuance of FASTag has crossed 70 lakh as on date with highest per day issuance of 1,35,583 tags on November 26, 2019. The average daily issuance has grown 330 per cent from 8,000 in July to 35,000 tags sold in November 2019.

After announcement of waiver of tag cost from November 21, there has been a growth in FASTag issuance of over 130 per cent.

Welcoming the Centre’s push for FASTags, automobile industry lobby Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM) said over the last two years, a robust process at the dealer’s end has been established for fitment of FASTags for new passenger vehicles, buses and trucks sold from December 1, 2017.

SIAM president Rajan Wadhera said, “100% implementation of FASTags would have several economic and environmental benefits in the road transportation sector with seamless movement through the toll plazas, thereby ensuring faster turnaround time for movement of goods & passengers and improving overall transportation efficiency.”

What are FASTags?

FASTag, a radio frequency identification (RFID) sticker typically fixed to a vehicle’s windscreen, lets toll booths wirelessly and automatically deduct the fee, thereby not requiring a vehicle to stop. The tags were made mandatory for all new cars sold after December 1, 2017, as a measure to encourage digital payments and free up congestion at toll booths.

How to recharge a FASTag?

• Any FASTag issued by a bank can be recharged by visiting the respective bank web portal. On submitting user credentials including vehicle’s registration number and phone number, a wallet associated with FASTag can be recharged via net banking, UPI and debit/credit card.
• FASTag issued by banks can also be recharged via UPI on the My FASTag App (available only on Android Play Store).
• Customers can also buy the FASTags at NHAI’s Point-of-Sale (PoS) kiosks. The kiosks have been deployed at all state Regional Transport Offices (RTOs) and NHAI toll booths.
• Those who do not wish to link their FASTags with their banks can avail the NHAI FASTag which are linked to a NHAI prepaid wallet that can be recharged via UPI on the My FASTag App through net banking, UPI and debit/credit card. Those NHAI FASTag which are linked to a bank account via My FASTag App are automatically topped up once the balance goes down below minimum threshold amount. The amount of auto-top can be chosen by customer by providing standing instruction while linking the tag with bank account.