FASTag mandatory now. Here are banks' customer care numbers for help

If you still do not have a FASTag for your car, then from today, i.e. January 15, you will have to pay double the fees at toll plazas across national highways (NHs) in India.

Last month, it was announced that FASTags will become mandatory for all vehicles, private and commercial, from January 15. This deadline has been extended twice already -- first deadline was December 15 which was extended to December 31 and then finally to January 15.

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.