दिल्ली
New FASTag rules proposes blacklisting
paliwalwani
New FASTag rules, which came into effect this Monday, propose blacklisting and a grace period for users, strict transaction validation to prevent fraud, mandatory re-KYC, and the declining of transactions for blacklisted or low-balance FASTags.
New FASTag rules, which came into effect this Monday, propose blacklisting and a grace period for users, strict transaction validation to prevent fraud, mandatory re-KYC, and the declining of transactions for blacklisted or low-balance FASTags. The Lorry Owners Association of Telangana, however, opposed the new rules, especially blacklisting and the grace period.
“If a FASTag is blacklisted upon reaching the toll, the user will be required to pay double the toll charges,” said Manchireddy Rajender Reddy, president of the association, adding that these measures are only meant to extract more revenue from vehicle owners.
Another key issue is the refund for penalties. “If an account is recharged within 10 minutes of the tag being scanned, the user can request a penalty refund,“ he said. "In the guise of streamlining, vehicle owners are being penalised, especially commercial and heavy vehicles. These heavy vehicles are driven by hired drivers. Our toll charges are also high, ranging from `250 to `700 per toll.
Sometimes, the balance is exhausted, and the driver is unaware. When the vehicle reaches the plaza with insufficient balance, it has to wait in the bay. There are instances when drivers are unable to contact the owner for a recharge for hours, as their phones may be out of reach.
The penalty time frame should be removed." FASTag was first introduced in our country in 2014. From December 2019, the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) made it mandatory for every vehicle. In Telangana, there are around 25 toll plazas that collect tolls from vehicles.
