What is FASTag and why all vehicle owners should have it before December 15?
FASTag promotes digital payments and makes it easier to keep tabs on toll booths and vehicles
Your vehicles will soon be able to cross the toll plazas without stopping and making toll payments. The Indian Government has made FASTag is necessary from December 15 at state and national highways. If you don’t get a FASTag, you will have to pay twice the charge of payable amount via FASTag. There are many companies and banks which will help you get the FASTag.
What is FASTag?
FASTag is a sticker containing an embedded chip and antenna which should be fixed at vehicle’s windscreen to enable automatic collection of toll charge when the vehicle passes through a toll plaza. FASTags have radio-frequency identification (RFID) technology at the front-end to help recognize the passing of a vehicle along with details like the status of the tag and vehicle class. At the back-end, it is connected to your bank account or wallet for auto-debit of toll charges.
Why you should have it?
The government has made it completely necessary for all the cars, vans, jeeps, buses, trucks and off-road vehicles (private or commercials) passing through toll booths on highways, to pay toll charges using FASTags. This kind of payment is available at all over 450 toll booths across the country. A cash-back scheme of 2.5 per cent of the total charge is also enabled via payment through FASTags for eligible customers until March 31, 2020.
Obtaining FASTags is also important because from December 15, all lanes at toll plazas barring one in each direction will be designated for FASTags lanes. And if you bring your vehicle into a FAStag lane without a tag, you will have to pay twice the charge of the applicable fee for that category of vehicle.
How is FAStag helpful?
FASTag promotes digital payments and makes it easier to keep tabs on toll booths and the vehicles. The cost of transportation and storage of cash as wells as manpower at the toll booth will decrease. It will also help in avoiding the long build-up of vehicles at the toll booths saving time and fuel expended by vehicles waiting in the queue.
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How you can get your FASTag?
FASTags are being issued by 23 certified banks including some finance banks co-operative banks and payments banks. The list of banks is available on the NCPI website. Also, FASTags can be obtained from selected petrol pumps, toll plazas, RTOs, or online at Amazon. You can also get it by downloading the MyFASTag app and then proceed to either buy from Amazon or from banks through the app.
You can directly link your bank account to the FASTags or you can use a Prepaid wallet and recharge it from time to time. FASTag account will capture all the transactions related to the particular vehicle. SMS alerts for each transaction, low balance and so on, are available. The FASTag is vehicle specific and once it is affixed to a vehicle, it cannot be transferred. If you sell your vehicle, the FASTag account can be closed.
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