National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) has decided to remove the mandatory threshold amount for FASTag account which a user was was required to pay in addition to the security deposit for passenger segment vehicles.
In a release announcing the measure, NHAI said on Wednesday that the move is aimed at faster FASTag penetration, ensuring seamless traffic and cutting the delays at toll plazas.
It may be noted that payment on toll plazas through FASTag will become mandatory from 15th February 2021.
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"Issuer banks were unilaterally mandating some threshold amount value for the FASTag account/wallet, in addition to the security deposit amount. As a result, many FASTag users were not allowed to pass through a toll plaza, in spite of having sufficient balance in their FASTag account/wallet. This was resulting into unwanted hassles and avoidable delay at toll plazas," the release said.
It has been decided that the users will now be allowed to pass through the toll plaza, if the FASTag account/wallet balance is non-negative, NHAI added.
With more than 2.54 crore users, FASTag contributes 80 percent of the total toll collection. Daily toll collection through FASTag has crossed Rs 89 crore mark.
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