Google Pay on Monday announced a new feature for FASTag users, allowing them to recharge their FASTag balance directly from the app. 

“The latest update will provide Google Pay users with an easy way to recharge their FASTag accounts and skip long queues at toll plazas,” Google had said in an official release. 

FASTags are prepaid, rechargeable tags that allow electronic payment at toll booths. The toll fees are directly deducted from the amount loaded in the FASTag. 

The Centre in July 2019 had announced its decision to reserve all lanes on toll plazas on national highways, except one each, for vehicles  that pay toll charges electronically, from December. FASTag is now used by vehicle owners for this payment.

Tracking payments 

In order to recharge their FASTag, users will first need to link their FASTag accounts to the Google Pay app.

 They can then recharge and track their toll payments directly from the app. This can be done through the FASTag option under the Bill Payment Category on Google app.  Then, users can enter their vehicle numbers and recharge the FASTag balance through their preferred bank account via UPI. 

The feature also allows users to keep  track of their  account balance for FASTags issued by approved banks. The list of  banks supporting the tag’s recharge has been listed on the official FASTag website. 

At present, over 20 banks including ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank and Axis Bank issue FASTags. ICICI Bank and Paytm Bank are the top players here, according to previous reports. 

Common Service Centre (CSC) and Paytm Payments Bank Ltd (PPBL)  had also signed an MoU for the sale of PPBL FASTags across the country through CSC’s last-mile network of 3.6 lakh outlets, in early January.

Before Google Pay enabled its FASTag-recharge feature, the National Payments Corporation of India had announced last month that it will allow users to recharge their FASTag balance directly through BHIM UPI. Users can recharge their FASTags directly through any app that supports BHIM-UPI transactions. 

Google Pay had more than 67 million monthly active users in 2019, according to a TechCrunch report. 

 

 

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