New FASTag rules effective from tomorrow: What are the changes?
What's the story
The National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) and the Ministry of Road Transport & Highways will implement new FASTag regulations from tomorrow.
The changes are intended to simplify toll payments and minimize disputes. The updated guidelines will mainly affect users who are late in payments or have blacklisted tags.
Changes have also been made regarding the chargeback process, cooling period, and transaction rejection rules.
Changes
Penalties for delayed transactions and low balance
The new FASTag rules mandate that users could be charged extra if their toll transactions are processed more than 15 minutes after the vehicle crosses the toll reader.
If a transaction is delayed due to insufficient balance in the user's FASTag account, the toll operator will be held responsible.
If an amount is deducted, users can dispute this charge only after a mandatory 15-day cooling period.
Guidelines
Revised chargeback process and cooling period
Under the revised rules, banks can raise chargebacks for incorrect deductions related to blacklisted/ low-balance FASTags only after 15 days.
If a chargeback is filed before this cooling period, it will be automatically rejected with a system error code (5290 - Cooling period not completed).
Users should note that toll charges deducted due to a delayed transaction can only be disputed after this waiting period.
New rule
Inactive or blacklisted tags face transaction rejection
Another major change in FASTag rules relates to blacklisted, low-balance, or hotlisted tags due to inactivity. If FASTag is inactive for over 60 minutes before vehicle crosses the toll and up to 10 minutes after passing, the transaction will be declined with reason code 176.
Help
How to avoid penalties?
To avoid any unexpected charges and transaction failures, FASTag users are advised to keep sufficient balance in their wallets before traveling.
They should also keep an eye on transaction times for any delays in deduction, and wait for the 15-day cooling period before raising a dispute if a charge is incorrectly deducted.
Regular updates of KYC details can prevent blacklisting and checking FASTag status before long journeys can help avoid rejections due to inactivity.