Vehicles sans FASTag to be charged double toll tax, free ride if toll plaza machine fails to read

While vehicle owners might have to pay double the toll price if they do not have FASTags installed from January 15, they will be allowed to cross the toll-gates without paying anything if the FASTag machines fail to scan at toll plazas.

According to Money Control, the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) has announced that vehicles will be allowed to cross toll plazas for free if the FASTag remains unread by the machines.

"Provided also that if a vehicle user with a valid, functional FASTag or any such device with sufficient balance in the linked account crossing a fee plaza installed with Electronic Toll Collection infrastructure, is not able to pay user fee through FASTag or any such device owing to malfunctioning of Electronic Toll Collection infrastructure, the vehicle user shall be permitted to pass the fee plaza without payment of any user fee. An appropriate zero transaction receipt shall be issued mandatorily for all such transactions," stated in a notification of the NHAI.

Mandatory for all vehicles

Road Transport and Highways Minister, Nitin Gadkari recently announced that it will be mandatory for all vehicles, private and commercial, to have FASTags from January 15. Vehicles devoid of FASTags will have to pay double the toll price, according to The Economic Times.

What is FASTag?

With the use of FASTag, the driver will be able to pay toll tax without stopping the vehicle. FASTag installed on a vehicle's windshield gets automatically scanned by the machines at toll plazas by the use of Radio Frequency Identification technology. As soon as the machine scans the FASTag, the money will be deducted automatically from the user's bank account, saving a good amount of time.