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Soon, you can use FASTags to buy fuel in Ahmedabad, Mumbai and Chandigarh.
This will be the first such service in India, claims 1Pay, the company which has provided the technology for the facility to one of the largest private sector banks that will issue FASTags. 1Pay is also in talks with various stakeholders to make it possible to pay penalties and parking charges through FASTags.
Over 20 banks issue FASTags, the RFID stickers attached to vehicle screens that can be used to pay toll charges at over 500 toll booths of the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) electronically. Large private sector banks that issue FASTags include Axis Bank, HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank, IDFC First Bank and Kotak Mahindra Bank.
“For FASTags issued by one of the largest private sector banks, we have the approval from the RBI to start using FASTags to make payments at fuel outlets and parking spaces,” Abhijeet Sehgal, CEO and co-founder, 1Pay, told BusinessLine . “This experience — of people driving into a fuel outlet and using their FASTags to pay for fuel — will be the first such in India.” 1Pay, launched in end-2016, did not name the bank due to client confidentiality.
In quantity and value, this large private sector bank accounts for 5 per cent of the FASTags sold and 5-8 per cent of e-payments. The fuel outlets have machines designed by 1Pay that read the FASTags and debit the amount after an OTP-based verification. 1Pay manages the entire FASTags programme for the bank — from back-end software at toll booths and selling the tags to after-sales support. It has at least two more regional banks on its client list, for whom it manages the software only. Sehgal expects to bag more bank-clients soon.
Tie-ups with ports
The technology service provider has tied up with ports in Gujarat for parking spaces, as a lot of trucks use the port. It is also in talks with shopping malls to enable more car users to pay for parking through FASTags.
FASTags are secure payment tools, emphasises Sehgal. “The tag readers (at toll booths/petrol fuel outlets/parking spaces) are mapped to the software of 1Pay’s system in banks,” he said, adding that money cannot be debited via other machines.
Companies are also increasingly linking their current accounts/savings accounts (CASA) to FASTags. “As wallets linked to FASTags cannot store more than ₹1 lakh, we enabled linking of CASA with FASTags,” Sehgal said. Retail users prefer to link their FASTags to prepaid wallets. But logistics companies with large fleets are gradually linking their CASA to FASTags. “Suppose the transporter has deposited ₹1 lakh in the wallet linked to FASTag. They can instruct the bank based on their requirement. For instance, at any given time, if the balance in the FASTag wallet touches ₹10,000, then ₹90,000 could be topped up from their current account in the bank to the FASTag account,” explained Sehgal.
As the usage widens, 1Pay expects the overall market where FASTags can be used for e-payments to touch ₹80,000 crore a year by the end of December 2020, a sharp jump from the present level of about ₹30,000 crore a year.
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