In what could be a shot in the arm to the Centre’s demonetisation policy, there has been a growing trend of sale of the Radio Frequency Identification (RFID)-based FASTags used by the road users for toll payments. According to the figures by Ministry of Road Transport and Highways, the sale of FASTags has risen sharply in the first fortnight of
December 2016.
While number of Fastags sold in November 2016 was 25,260, it has almost doubled till December 15 with a total of 45,692 Fastags being sold. “The fee collected through FASTags in Oct 2016 was Rs 27.49 crore which is before the demonetisation announcement. In December so far the total fee collection through FASTags is Rs 28.02 crores and by the month end it could cross Rs 50 crore. With fog around, road users in north India avoid taking highways, otherwise the collection could have been crossed over Rs 75 crore,” said a top Road Transport Ministry official.
Ever since the scrapping of high value currency notes, the Ministry while allowing usage of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes simultaneously pitched for road users to buy the RFID-based FASTags which are put up on the windshield to enable automatic deduction of toll fees from a pre-paid account linked to it.
“The Ministry has made arrangements for the sale of FASTags at selected toll fee plazas and will also provide a discount of 10% on the toll fee for those who make immediate use of these tags. All the 365 toll plazas across NHs have been equipped with enough Point of Sale (PoS) machines to enable people to pay toll fees by card. Toll fees can also be paid using electronic wallets like Paytm, MobiKwik and Freecharge,” added the official.