FASTag must for vehicle insurance from April ’21

From April next year, you won’t be able to renew the third party insurance of your vehicle except for two and three-wheelers, if it doesn’t have a valid FASTag. Moreover, all vehicles with four or more wheels would need to have FASTag from January 1 and violation of this would attract a penalty of Rs 300 to Rs 500. The road transport ministry has published a draft notification proposing these changes in the Central Motor Vehicle Rules (CMVR) in order to increase penetration of FASTags. Though all cars and other bigger vehicles sold after December 1, 2017 have got the FASTags since this was made mandatory for registration, a huge number of old vehicles don’t have the valid smart tags. “This move will ensure greater coverage of the FASTag used for making toll charge payment digitally,” said a source. However, there are concerns whether the insurance companies and the insurance regulator would find it possible to ensure that only vehicles with FASTags can renew the third party insurance. Currently, nearly 50% of the vehicles have this insurance coverage and the regulator has been trying to increase the coverage.