Government to issue up to 12000 FASTags to VIPs for toll-free ride

The government will provide about 10,000 to 12,000 FASTags for vehicles attached to persons and dignitaries who are entitled for “free ride” through toll plazas on National Highways (NHs) across the country.

Though the number of these “zero transaction” tags seems big, officials said this will be much less as compared to the number of people including the number of VIP hangers-on who have been enjoying free ride claiming themselves to be in the ‘exempted’ category.

Officials in National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) said toll operators don’t get any user fee from nearly one lakh transactions every day out of a total 20-25 lakh transactions. “There is huge revenue loss and the operators have been complaining against the chronic problem,” said an NHAI official.


Toll charge of a vehicle fitted with FASTags is automatically deducted when it reaches the toll gate.

Zero transaction tags are the ones issued by NHAI and these don’t have any balance. These tags have a validity period for free passage. The authority has already provided two FASTags to each sitting Member of Parliament — one for Delhi vehicle and another for a vehicle used in one’s constituency — so that they can travel free.

After extensive misuse of the “exempted category” was flagged by road transport ministry, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had asked it to come out with a plan to roll out the new scheme to curb this menace.

Sources said the ministry has prepared a Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) for rolling out the scheme. Indian Highways Management Company Limited (IHMCL), an SPV under administrative control of NHAI, will seek applications through the regional offices across states and people can apply online for the zero transaction tags.