Insurers seek Centre's nod for issuing FASTag stickers

Bengaluru: Insurance companies have reached out to the Union government with a request for participation in the Fastag ecosystem, two people aware of the matter told ET.

"Some top executives of the insurance industry have met with officials of the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways, pushing for the case of insurance companies to be allowed to issue Fastag stickers," one of them said.


Industry officials cited the role the insurance sector plays in a vehicle life cycle to push their demand. The conversations are private and at an early stage, the sources said. "Insurance companies are anyway licensed to hold public funds, so Fastag issuance can be extended to general insurance companies as well." said the second person cited above.

Currently, toll payments are done digitally via Fastag stickers or RFID (radio frequency ID) tags installed on vehicles.

Banks are allowed to issue the stickers and, in some cases, fintechs like Amazon Pay, Park Plus have partnered with banks like ICICI Bank, IDFC First Bank to distribute these stickers.

Fastags in India are run under the National Electronic Toll Collection platform operated by the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) in partnership with Indian Highways Management Company (IHMCL), which is backed by the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI). So, technically the Union government and NPCI run the digital toll collection system in the country.

In July ET had reported about the stagnation in Fastag transactions owing to limited adoption of the payment mechanism beyond highway toll payments.

In October 2025, NPCI data showed that 360 million transactions were reported on the NETC system, settling around ₹6,600 crore. This number has hovered around the same range for the last one year, with hardly any growth in transactions. However, "it will require multiple iterations and ideations to bring insurance companies into the picture," said the first person quoted above.

For new-age general insurance companies, this could be an interesting move, given vehicle insurance is a large part of their business. For instance, Bengaluru-based Acko processed motor insurance premium of ₹633 crore between April to October 2025. Its total insurance premium collection in the same period was ₹1,407 crore. For Go Digit General Insurance, the motor premium amount in the same period stood at ₹3,865 crore, its total premium collection stood at ₹5,885 crore.

Emailed queries to Acko and Go Digit went unanswered.

The automobile industry is of huge significance to the general insurance industry. Many of these players are actually trying to build an ecosystem around vehicle management. Acko for instance offers vehicle reviews for new purchases, offers service management for personal vehicles as well.