The Ministry of Road Transport Highways (MoRTH) issued a new notification on FASTag on 15 May 2020. 

As per the new and updated rule, any vehicle which is not fitted with FASTag or without a valid or function FASTag and enters into FASTag lane of the Fee plazas at the Tollgate, then they will have to pay twice the amount of fee applicable to that category of vehicles.

Earlier, only the vehicles without FASTag and entered in a designated FASTag lane were to pay twice the fee at the toll plaza.

This rule was not applicable to the vehicles entering the Fastag lanes with an invalid or non-functional tags.

The Indian government made FASTags mandatory from January 15, 2020.

Currently, 23 certified banks are issuing FASTags through various channels like Point-of-Sale (POS). They can also be bought at select branches of banks.

These banks include many public sector banks like State Bank of India, Punjab National Bank etc. and private banks like Axis Bank, ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank etc.

Besides, Paytm Payments Bank Ltd. and Airtel Payments Bank also offer FASTags.

In this context, the SBI issued an advisory to its customers to follow the new FASTag guidelines.

SBI charges ₹100 for issuance of FASTag in all categories of vehicles. This amount is inclusive of all taxes.

It is also mandatory to maintain a prescribed amount in the FASTag account based on the vehicle type.

All personal vehicles and Mini Light commercial vehicles should have to maintain ₹100. Light commercial vehicles should have to maintain ₹140 and Three Axle commercial vehicles should have to maintain ₹300 in their accounts.

Besides, SBi charges a security amount which is specific to the class of the vehicle. This security amount will be refunded when the customer closes the FASTag account.

Image Credit: Govt of India / CC0

Image Reference: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Fastag-logo.png