The Road Ministry has proposed more steps to widen use of FASTags in vehicle and driver-related ecosystem.

With effect from April 1, 2021, the Road Ministry proposes to make it compulsory to have a FASTag with pre-loaded balance money in the wallet to get a new third party insurance. To do this, it proposes to amendment the certificate of insurance that will allow details of FASTag identity shall be captured, said an official statement.

From the total toll charges that are collected on national highways, about 65 per cent are collected electronically through FASTags. “The aim (of this move) is to prevent leakages in toll collection and full compliance by drivers on insurance,” interpreted SP Singh, Senior Fellow, IFTRT, for BusinessLine . It could also result in accident claim settlements.

The Ministry has notified a proposal on September 1, and sought comments and suggestions from the stakeholders on this proposal.

In another move, with effect from January 1, 2021, FASTags, the RFID tags that are also called vehicle Aadhaar because of the unique identity that they can provide to vehicles, are proposed to be made mandatory in all four wheelers sold before December 1, 2017 through amendments in Motor Vehicle Rules, added the statement.

It had further been mandated that the renewal of fitness certificate will be done only after the fitment of FASTag for the Transport vehicles, the vehicles that are used commercially. Also, for National Permit Vehicles the fitment of FASTag has been mandated since October 1, 2019.

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