FASTag annual pass now at 1,150 NH toll plazas; here's how govt is cracking down on ‘loose FASTag’, ‘tag-in-hand’ misuse

The NHAI has implemented the FASTag annual pass facility at 1,150 toll plazas on national highways and expressways on August 15, 2025. Around 1.4 lakh users activated it by 7 PM on Day 1, and around 1.39 lakh transactions were recorded, as per NHAI. Around 20,000–25,000 users use the NHAI’s Rajmargyatra App at any point in time. To ensure a smooth experience, NHAI’s officials and nodal officers are at each toll plaza, and users’ queries are being heard through various channels, including the 1033 helpline.

To get a FASTag annual pass, one can recharge with ₹3,000 for a year or 200 toll plaza crossings. The facility, applicable to all non-commercial vehicles, gets activated in two hours of recharge via the Rajmargyatra App or the NHAI website. FASTag ensures the electronic toll collection system, which has a penetration rate of around 98%. The NHAI’s idea behind the annual pass is to enhance user experience and make journeys more economical and seamless.

Where is FASTag annual pass valid?

The annual pass applies to National Highway (NH) and National Expressway (NE) fee plazas. While it does not apply to state highways & expressways, if the state government is willing to introduce such a pass system, the government intends to provide full technical support.

The annual pass scheme can be activated on the existing FASTag of a non-commercial car/jeep/van, allowing travel for one year or up to two hundred crossings, at the national highway fee plaza. The users can raise grievances via the e-notice portal developed by the National Informatics Centre (NIC), National Highways Helpline 1033, or email at falsededuction@ihmcl.com, FASTag Issuer Bank Helplines or at the Rajmargyatra App.

The road user can avail the annual pass facility at all national highway fee plazas across the country. Since the annual pass is built on the existing platform, all standard facilities will continue to be uniformly accessible across all NH fee plazas.

How is govt dealing with the challenges of 'loose FASTag' or 'tag-in-hand'?

The government, via the Indian Highways Management Company Ltd. (IHMCL), has strengthened the standard operating procedure (SOP) for detecting and blacklisting ‘loose FASTags’. Fee plaza operators are required to report such violations to the acquirer bank concerned and the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI). And the issuer bank, after verifying, must blacklist the non-compliant FASTag, while IHMCL monitors adherence. Notably, vehicles not fitted with a valid and functional FASTag are also charged double the applicable fee. Vehicles with non-affixed FASTags also fall under this and must pay the double fee in cash.

The government data shows that around 98% of user fee collection takes place through FASTag, and the transaction involves a process wherein the deducted user fee is informed to the highway users and recorded in a central repository.

To address the problem of incorrect toll deduction, the Fastag user can raise a complaint to the issuer bank of FASTag, National Highway Helpline 1033 or a dedicated email at falsededuction@ihmcl.com. As per the National Payment Corporation of India (NPCI) report in 2024, charge-backs were made to FASTag users for 12.55 lakh transactions, about 0.03% of the total 410 crore FASTag transactions made in 2024. In case of false deduction cases, a penalty of ₹1 lakh per case is also levied on the toll collection agency.

On the issue of 'loose FASTag' or 'tag-in-hand' posing a challenge to the efficiency of electronic toll collection operations, Union Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari in Parliament on July 31, 2025, admitted the practice poses a "significant challenge" to the efficiency and integrity of the toll collection system as they lead to manual lane operations, congestion at fee plazas, misuse in closed-loop tolling systems, generation of false chargebacks, and disruption of automated toll processing.

To detect such practices, Gadkari said to increase the efficiency of the tolling operation and ensure seamless and free-flow movement of vehicles along national highways, the government has decided to implement automatic number plate registration (ANPR) based barrier-free collection, where the user fee will be charged from the vehicle users without having to stop, slow down or stay in a given fee plaza lane.