Earlier this year, the Minister of Road Transport and Highways, Mr. Nitin Gadkari announced that starting this December, all vehicles are mandated to use FASTags while passing through tolls. This means that all four wheelers currently existing must have FASTag devices to be fixed on the front windshields by an authorised automobile dealer or manufacturer.
FASTag is currently in operation at about 370 toll plazas across the national highways of India. This is an Inter-operable system i.e. the system can be used across all the toll plazas in India. But what exactly is FASTag? What is the technology behind it?
How Does FASTag Work?
A FASTag is a tag that is attached to the windshield of the car from the inside, and is essentially a RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) chip that is scanned by a RFID scanner located at the top of the toll booth. The RFID chip has a Unique Identification Number embedded, that is linked to a prepaid bank account of the vehicle owner. All you have to do is drive your vehicle to the booth, and the scanner will automatically identify the FASTag, Deduct amount from the linked bank account, and thats it! You can pass through the toll plaza.
How Does FASTag Benefit the Users?
FASTag benefits the users by saving time in paying tolls and preventing congestions at the toll booths, thereby saving fuel and time. Apart from this, FASTag helps you make cashless payments and earn cashbacks from the banks. In general, a FASTag user is refunded 5% of the total amount of tolls paid in a month. For taxi operators and transporters, the technology helps in tracking the movement of their vehicles through SMS alerts.
In future, the government also plans to integrate e-way bills and various other services to FASTag mechanism to reduce faster movement of goods and prevent transporters to evade GST. These e-way bills can also be linked to the DMICDC (Delhi Mumbai Industrial Corridor Development Corporation) to ease LDB services, and eventually use FASTag to Track Shipments.
This will help in improving operational efficiencies of logistic companies, and help the government to keep a check on the traders in terms of GST evasion, by taking advantage of loopholes within the supply chain. Linking with FASTag will also help in boosting tax collections by restricting cash-only trades.
