New FASTag Rules To Streamline Toll Payments

New Delhi: New FASTag rules, imposing extra penalties on users with low balance, delayed payments or blacklisted tags, will come into force from Monday.

The National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) and the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways have issued some key changes to the FASTag ecosystem, aiming to streamline toll payments, reduce disputes and curb frauds.

Starting February 17, new FASTag rules will affect users who delay payments or have blacklisted tags. If a FASTag has been inactive for more than 60 minutes before the vehicle crosses the toll and remains inactive up to 10 minutes after passing, the transaction will be declined. The system will reject such payments with “error code 176”. This rule is set to be implemented from February 17.

Apart from this, there are also changes in terms of the Chargeback process and cooling period as well as transaction rejection rules to streamline toll payments and reduce disputes.

According to new guidelines, FASTag users may incur additional charges if their toll transactions are processed beyond 15 minutes from the time the vehicle passes the toll reader.

According to updated National Electronic Toll Collection (NETC) guidelines, if a transaction is delayed and the user’s FASTag account has insufficient balance, the toll operator will be held

responsible.