Now pay twice if you enter a toll plaza without a valid or functional FASTag

If you enter a FASTag lane without a valid or functional FASTag then you will have to pay twice the toll. The Ministry of Road Transport and Highways issued a notification, dated 15th May 2020 for an amendment in the National Highways Fee (Determination of Rates and Collection) Rules, 2008 which states that if a vehicle which is not fitted with FASTag or the vehicle is without a valid or functional FASTag, enters into “FASTag lane” of the fee plazas, then they will have to pay a fee equivalent to two times the fee applicable to that category of the vehicle.

Before this amendment, the user of vehicle was to pay twice on the fee at toll plaza across national highways (NHs) in India only if the vehicle didn't carry the FASTag and entered in dedicated FASTag lane. This was not applicable to those entering the FASTag lane with an invalid or non-functional tag.

The FASTag became madatory from January 15, 2020.

Why FASTag is beneficial?
The FAStag is affixed on the windscreen of your vehicle. With the help of the FASTag, you will not have to stop your vehicle at toll plazas to pay the toll as this automatically gets deducted from the FAStag which is either linked to your bank account or a prepaid wallet. The activated FASTtag works on Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology.

FASTags are currently issued by 23 certified banks through various channels such as Point-of-Sale (POS) at National Highway toll plazas and select bank branches. You can buy a FASTag from Paytm, HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank, State Bank of India, Kotak Mahindra Bank, etc. (The detailed list of issuing bank is mentioned below). They are available on e-commerce platforms such as Amazon as well.


Here is the detailed list of 23 certified banks providing FASTags
Source: IHMCL website

According to an Economic Times report, about 6.4 crore FASTag transactions, worth Rs 1,256 crore, were processed in December as against 3.4 crore transactions worth Rs 774 crore in November. This is according to the FASTag transactions data released on January 1, 2020 by the National Payments Corporation of India.

Paytm Payments Bank, in a press release, stated that has issued 30 lakh FASTags. Paytm Payments Bank issued over 40 percent of all FASTags in the month of December.