To expand FASTag usability, the National Highways Authority of India on Wednesday decided to do away with the mandatory requirement of keeping a minimum balance in the FASTag wallet. The move aims at ensuring seamless movement at electronic toll plazas.
“In order to increase the FASTag penetration to ensure seamless movement of traffic and to reduce avoidable delays at the toll plazas, NHAI has decided to remove the mandatory threshold amount for the FASTag account / wallet, which was paid by the user in addition to the security deposit for the passenger segment (Car/Jeep/Van),” NHAI said in a statement.
NHAI in the statement said that it has noticed that issuer banks were unilaterally mandating some security amount for the FASTag wallet, which had people stuck at the toll plazas despite having money in their FASTag wallet. Now the need for maintaining that extra balance in the wallet has been removed and users will now be allowed to pass through the toll plaza if the FASTag account/wallet balance is non-negative.
However, if after crossing the toll plaza the amount becomes negative, the bank can recover the amount from security deposits. With more than 2.54 crore users, FASTag contributes 80 per cent of the total toll collection. Daily toll collection through FASTag has crossed the Rs 89 crore mark.
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The government has ordered that FASTag will become mandatory from February 15, 2021
