Fastags have become an integral part of the Indian car market with all four-wheelers mandatorily told to install this system across the country without any exception a few years ago. However, as human nature goes, people misused the same, leading to the government cracking down on violators.
Earlier this year, the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) announced that Fastags with valid balances but incomplete KYC will be deactivated by banks after January 31, 2024. This essentially meant that one vehicle could only use one fastag and one fastag could only be registered for one car.
The NHAI relaxed the date for the ease of people and extended it to February 29. The deadline was once again extended to March 31 and finally the “One car, One Fastag” policy came into effect from April 1. This initiative is intended to help make toll operations more efficient and ensure seamless and comfortable journeys for the National Highway users.
NHAI took this initiative after recent reports of multiple Fastags being issued for a particular vehicle and Fastags being issued without KYC in violation of RBI’s mandate. Another major violation observed among many car owners was absence of a Fastag on the windscreen of the vehicle, resulting in unnecessary delays at the toll plazas and causing inconvenience to fellow National Highway users.
Here are the implications of the new “One car, One Fastag” policy that came into effect earlier this month:
- From here onwards, every car can only avail a single Fastag and vice versa.
- Users will also have to complete Know Your Customer’ (KYC) process on each of their Fastags issues under their name, each registered with a distinct RC number.
- Users with multiple Fastags will be restricted from recharging their wallet but can use the existing balance for toll transactions until their tags are marked “Low Balance” and blocked.
- Each Fastag is based on the vehicle’s registration card. Duplication or mismatch will result in the Fastag being blacklisted by the issuer bank.
How Fastags work?
Fastag serves as an electronic toll collection system in India, administered by NHAI. Utilising Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology, it facilitates toll payments directly from the linked prepaid or savings account or directly from the toll owner. With a penetration rate of around 98% and over 8 crore users, Fastags have revolutionised the electronic toll collection system in the country.
