The National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) has made a significant announcement that FASTags with valid balances but with incomplete Know Your Customer (KYC) will get deactivated soon. NHAI informed that such FASTags will be deactivated by banks after January 31, 2024.
The Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH) said in a press release on Monday, January 15, that NHAI has taken the “One Vehicle, One FASTag” initiative, which aims to discourage users from using a single FASTag for multiple vehicles. NHAI also wants to discourage people from linking multiple FASTags to a particular vehicle. With this move, NHAI is focusing on improving the efficiency of the electronic toll collection system and delivering seamless movement at the toll plazas.
To prevent any inconvenience, FASTag users must ensure that the KYC for their most recent FASTag is updated. “FASTag users must also comply with ‘One Vehicle, One FASTag’ and discard all the earlier issued FASTags through their respective banks,” said the ministry in the statement. Notably, only the latest FASTag account will remain active after January 31, 2024, as previous tags will be deactivated or blacklisted.
The ministry noted that there were recent reports of multiple FASTags being delivered for a particular vehicle and FASTags being issued without KYC in violation of the Reserve Bank of India”s (RBI) mandate. Apart from this, FASTags are sometimes deliberately not fixed on a vehicle”s windscreen. The ministry says that this results in unnecessary delays at the toll plazas.
The Ministry of Road Transport and Highways said that FASTag has revolutionized the electronic toll collection system in India. The ministry said that the new initiative will help to make toll operations more efficient and ensure seamless journeys.