TL; DR
- From now on, when you cross a toll plaza, you’ll have three options to pay the toll fee.
- Yes, the move gives new car owners a chance to make digital payments without paying twice the toll fee, and we can see how this change will benefit them.
The Ministry of Road Transport & Highways has introduced new toll collection rules, encouraging citizens to use digital payments at toll plazas to save the time spent handling cash. Earlier, citizens could either pay the toll fee using their FASTag account (with required balance) or in cash, which attracted a heavy penalty. However, the ministry now allows citizens to pay via UPI payments (with a slight catch).
UPI Payments Are An Option, But They Attract A 25% Fine
From now on, when you cross a toll plaza, you’ll have three options to pay the toll fee.
- First, you could pay through your active (and valid) FASTag, and you won’t be charged a fine.
- Second, you can pay via UPI payments directly through your bank account, but you’ll have to pay 1.25x the toll fee.
- Third, you can pay in cash, but it will cost you twice the actual toll fee at the plaza.
Yes, the move gives new car owners a chance to make digital payments without paying twice the toll fee, and we can see how this change will benefit them. The move promotes smoother traffic movement at toll plazas, helping you save time that would otherwise be spent standing in a queue (with your engine and air conditioner on).
There are over seven crore or 70 million FASTags issued in India. Further, 97% of the toll plazas out there are entirely digital, implying that they are fully equipped to accept payments via FASTags or UPI payments (now that it is an option). However, the problem at toll plazas is bigger than FASTag or cash payments, and UPI payments per se.
You see, notorious operators at the toll plaza often tell new or inexperienced drivers that their FASTag is blacklisted, even when they’ve just paid at the last toll about an hour or so ago, and ask for twice the cash payment. Additionally, there are instances when the FASTag scanning infrastructure of the toll plazas is at fault, and yet the managers don’t let cars pass until there’s no congestion.
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This doesn’t apply to a majority of toll plazas owned by the state governments or NHAI, but you can easily find information about such instances on social media platforms (I’ve experienced it firsthand, more than once). Anyway, I hope the new initiative by the ministry helps drivers save time at toll plazas.
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