Fast-Tag based annual pass for commuters in India has been announced by the Union Minister of Road, Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari. This information was provided by the Minister on June 18, 2025, Wednesday.
While announcing the annual pass cost and state date, Gadkari stated, “In a transformative step towards hassle-free highway travel, we are introducing a FASTag-based annual pass priced at ₹3,000, effective from 15th August 2025. It is valid for one year from the date of activation or up to 200 trips—whichever comes first.”
In addition to this, he also briefed the process to purchase the annual pass. He mentioned, “A dedicated link for activation and renewal will soon be made available on the Rajmarg Yatra App as well as on the official websites of NHAI and MoRTH.”
Need for FASTag annual pass -
According to the reports by Gadkari, this policy has been designed to address the long-standing concerns about toll plazas across the nation. This will focus on the plazas situated within a range of 60 kilometers and to streamline the process of toll payments through a single as well as affordable transaction.
He added that the annual pass will not only reduce wait time, congestion as well as eliminating the disputes cropping up at the toll plazas; but also make it an easier and faster journey experience to millions of customers yet to own a privately operated vehicle.
FASTag yearly pass on old users
The owners of vehicles will be able to switch to the new system without any need to provide extra documents or any alterations in their accounts. FAStag customers will have the opportunity to go through to the new policy using current accounts. The previous scheme to establish a lifetime FASTag through a one-time payment of 30000 rupees in 15 years was cancelled.
Ministry dismisses news of satellite-based toll systems as an alternative to FASTag
According to the reports by PTI, the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways had said, "This is to clarify that no such decision has been taken by the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways or National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) regarding the nationwide implementation of satellite-based tolling from May 1, 2025,"
The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) has put forward the rollout of the so-called Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR)-FASTag-based Barrier-Less Tolling System now; these will be implemented at specified numbers of toll plazas. This will be decided whether it will implement it in the country or not based on the performance, efficiency and how people respond to the system, it added.
All the nationwide highway toll plazas operate on the ICD 2.5 protocol that gives real-time tag status. Therefore, the customers using FASTag are allowed to recharge whenever before going through the toll plaza.
The advance tolling system, according to an official statement by the ministry, reads the number plate of the vehicle and makes use of the already introduced FASTag infrastructure that is based on Radio-Frequency Identification (RFID) toll collection.
With this new arrangement, cars will automatically be fined by the high-performance ANPR cameras and FASTag readers, thus, the stopping at the toll plazas will become optional. In case of a vehicle that does not comply, the violator will get an E-Notice. The report by ANI said that failure to pay might result in suspension of FASTag and/or levying fines within the VAHAN regime.