The deadline for adoption of FASTag will not be extended any more and it will be applicable from the midnight of February 15-16. Hence, vehicle owners should immediately adopt FASTag, said Nitin Gadkari, Union Minister of Road Transport and Highways, on Sunday. In a brief interaction with mediapersons at the airport here, Gadkari said that the vehicle owners should immediately adopt FASTag, the e-payment facility at toll plazas.

 

The system was introduced in the year 2016. Central Government had earlier extended FASTag registration deadline two-three times. Now, Gadkari said, it will not be extended further. The previous deadline was January 1, 2021. It was extended to February 15. Replying to a question, Gadkari said that FASTag registration had gone up to 90 per cent on certain routes and only 10 per cent people were left. FASTag is a system using radio frequency identification (RFID) tag that facilitates electronic payment of tax/fee at toll plazas automatically.

 

Meanwhile, on Sunday, the Union Ministry of Road Transport and Highways issued a statement that all lanes at the toll plazas on National Highways would be declared as ‘FASTag lane of the fee plaza’ with effect from midnight of February 15-16. “Therefore, as per NH Fee Rules 2008, any vehicle not fitted with FASTag or vehicle without valid, functional FASTag entering into the FASTag lane of the fee plaza shall pay a fee equivalent to two times of the fee applicable to that category,” read the statement. Thus, vehicles without FASTag passing through National Highway toll plazas will have to pay double the toll tax from the midnight of February 15-16.

 

The Ministry stated that this was being done to ‘further promote fee payment through digital mode, reduce waiting time and fuel consumption, and provide for a seamless passage through the fee plazas’. The Ministry had mandated fitment of FASTag in ‘M&N categories’ of motor vehicles with effect from January 1, 2021. Category ‘M’ stands for a motor vehicle with at least four wheels, and used for carrying passengers. Category ‘N’ stands for a motor vehicle with at least four wheels, and used for carrying goods which may also carry persons in addition to goods.