FASTag: Nitin Gadkari asks RBI for KYC exemption
Minister of Road Transport and Highways, Nitin Gadkari, has approached the Reserve Bank of India to exempt FASTag buyers from the mandated Know Your Customer (KYC) process for online payments. This is meant to streamline the process of acquiring a FASTag.
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As of now, customers buying the tag need to furnish the registration proof of the vehicle along with identity and address proofs. Further, the address on the car's registration documents need to match the one in the personal address proof. This may cause problems for fleet operators or drivers of company cars. This situation could get aggravated further given that the NHAI plans to eventually bring roads owned by state governments and public parking spaces under the purview of the FASTag system.
Gadkari is said to have met RBI governor Shaktikanta Das over this issue. The minister is also of the opinion that drivers without tags should be provided with one at toll booths instead of being fined double the amount, as has been proposed. The NHAI recently postponed the implementation date to December 15 from the earlier December 1, so that more users have time to sign up and teething issues such as this one are solved.
A FASTag is a Radio-frequency Identification (RFID) sticker that you place on your vehicle's windscreen. It is issued by the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) and is meant to facilitate electronic toll collection on its highways. This is linked to the owner's bank account or prepaid recharges can be done as per requirements, using the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) network. The tags can be used for as long as they are functional and only need to be replaced if they are damaged or if they can't be read at toll plazas. You can read about it in detail here.
