[carboy]

Originally Posted by androdev

That's the attitude of the government, especially in a third world country like ours.

I can understand the govt's attitude. What can't understand is so many people supporting it.

[tushar_j]

Here is a different take:

- Person has FASTAG and all KYC done
- FASTAG is associated with bank account, as well as PAN
- Over a period of time, authorities can do data-mining and find out how much said person has travelled, which geographic areas, and total amounts paid
- This data can be extrapolated to calculate fuel costs
- Now authorities have chain-linked details of: Car make/model (Total price paid by Person), approximate amount spent on fuel, amount spent on tolls, all over a certain financial year
- Now authorities can compare this to the linked bank accounts and PAN, and they have details of how much said Person earns, and how much the Person reports in ITR.
- Authorities can now find, for e.g., that Person is travelling much more than what that Person's income allows for. This looks suspicious and makes Person a possible tax evasion suspect. Similarly, Person is showing a lot of travel as business expenses, but there is not a single FASTAG transaction.
- This is an oversimplified scenario to get my point across. Of course there will be travel allowances, fuel allowances, etc. which factor in, and they will be calculated. And yes, a lot of travel can be done on non-toll routes. But you get the gist.
- Now use your imagination and you will see what all can be done with this new data goldmine

[Hayek]

Of course KYC is needed for any financial product - whether sold by a Bank or the Government or any other entity. Why is KYC needed? Because financial instruments can be used to launder money from illegal activities, to evade taxes, and even to finance terrorism - and ALL financial institutions have an obligation to prevent that - which starts with knowing whom you issued the instrument to.

In the case of Fastag, KYC is based on the RC of the vehicle for which it is issued and KYC on the registered owner of the vehicle. Hence using a Fastag issued for one vehicle for another is a violation of the law and a potential criminal offence under PMLA. Actually the toll operator has an obligation to verify that the car passing through is the same as the one for which the Fastag has been issued but often does not do that. In my own case, I had several hundred Rupees deducted from my Fastag at certain toll plazas in Tamil Nadu when my car was in Bombay, which should not have happened had the toll operator been doing his job.

So why is Fastag needed? First, it speeds up traffic flow and saves time and fuel. Almost all the problems we face at toll booths are due to the small number of vehicle owners who have invalid Fastags. That may become worse temporarily while enforcing KYC but hopefully that is corrected soon.

Second, it has helped reduce the use of toll booths as money laundering machines. And this did not require fake toll booths and was often done in connivance with the toll operator. All business that deal with large amounts of cash are vulnerable to use for money laundering. If a toll operator wanted to skim money out of his company (at the cost of the lenders), he would under report traffic and keep the cash collected in black. They often had fake cash registers which issued fake receipts which were not reported to authorities for this purpose. On the other hand, if he wanted to boost financials either in advance of raising equity or debt, or to convert black money into white, he would over report traffic and cash collections. Both of these criminal activities have reduced post the introduction of Fastag. But unless KYC is done in Fastags, the same can be replicated through fake Fastags in the name of mules who facilitate money laundering.

So i do hope this explainer makes it clear to all why Fastag with appropriate KYC is essential. Of course, banks could make the KYC process simpler and less vulnerable to fraud and abuse. That is a question is process design and invariably varies depending on the bank.

Going off topic but the existence of cash is itself a problem. I suspect in another 10 years, with the growth of Central Bank Digital Currencies, cash will be extinct. And people will wonder how such an abuse prone system was tolerated.

[carboy]

Originally Posted by tushar_j

- Authorities can now find, for e.g., that Person is travelling much more than what that Person's income allows for. This looks suspicious and makes Person a possible tax evasion suspect.

Yes, Govt should start with the assumption that everyone is a tax evader & proceed from there. And tolls aren't the only thing where people can spend more than their supposed income - that can be done at all other shops & places. Best is to make cash illegal & allow only those kinds of spending instruments which can be tracked.

Why just tax evader? Govt should start with the assumption that everyone is a criminal even beyond tax evasion. Best is to fit everyone with a body cam which can be monitored by the Govt if need arises. If you aren't a criminal, you have nothing to hide anyway.

Originally Posted by Hayek

Of course KYC is needed for any financial product - whether sold by a Bank or the Government or any other entity.

So does the prepaid gift card you buy from Shopper's Stop or Westside need KYC?

Other than that, I have never seen a toll both outside India which doesn't accept cash. Cash is legal tender, should be accepted by everyone. All you people can do your KYC, but at least let me pay by cash.

Originally Posted by Hayek

All business that deal with large amounts of cash are vulnerable to use for money laundering. If a toll operator wanted to skim money out of his company (at the cost of the lenders), he would under report traffic and keep the cash collected in black.

This is not money laundering. I don't think you understand what is money laundering. Money Laundering isn't converting white money into black. It's converting black into white.

Other than that, this is not specific to toll booths. It can be done anywhere. Why not just ban cash anywhere to avoid these issues?

[Hayek]

Originally Posted by carboy

So does the prepaid gift card you buy from Shopper's Stop or Westside need KYC?

Actually Shopper’s Stop et al need to obtain a license from the RBI is issue Prepaid Instruments (this article summarises - https://corpbiz.io/prepaid-wallet-license)

Other than that, I have never seen a toll both outside India which doesn't accept cash. Cash is legal tender, should be accepted by everyone. All you people can do your KYC, but at least let me pay by cash.

In fact in many parts of the world, you don’t have toll booths anymore - and money is deducted directly from wallets. And those who don’t have the wallet receive a bill at their registered address with a premium to compensate for collection costs. Cash is legal tender based on government policy. If you want to pay by cash, pay 2x toll. In fact, 2x is too low - each person paying by cash wastes 5 minutes for each of the 5-6 people behind in the queue - viz 30 minutes overall, and so the premium for a cash payment should be 10x, not 2x

This is not money laundering. I don't think you understand what is money laundering. Money Laundering isn't converting white money into black. It's converting black into white.

Other than that, this is not specific to toll booths. It can be done anywhere. Why not just ban cash anywhere to avoid these issues?

It is both. You are obviously not aware of what money laundering is under PMLA and other similar laws. And yes, cash payments more than a certain amount are illegal in India - and May be all cash payments will be illegal tomorrow in a post CBDC world.

[DriverLess]

Originally Posted by Turbohead

Can you share where this is being shown in the portal? Thanks!

This is on the web portal (not on mobile app). Click on "Account summary" after login. BTW, now, ICICI portal is asking you to submit ID & PAN as soon as you login.

[binand]

Originally Posted by carboy

So does the prepaid gift card you buy from Shopper's Stop or Westside need KYC?

Yes. But at the stored value levels these operate, an OTP-validated mobile number is sufficient for KYC. The RBI doc I shared earlier has details on how these are categorised and what kind of KYC is needed.

Few months back I made some purchases that totalled 50K at Lifestyle. The billing clerk suggested I pay using an Amazon-Lifestyle gift voucher to take advantage of the discounts on offer. But due to KYC limitations (see direction 10.1), I had to buy 5 separate 10K vouchers and apply them one-by-one.

Originally Posted by carboy

Other than that, I have never seen a toll both outside India which doesn't accept cash.

All toll booths in India also accept cash. A higher toll rate is applicable though. I think this was challenged in the court and maybe a decision is still pending.

Originally Posted by carboy

If the toll operators were allowed to issue the fastags...

It would be somewhat of a useless product, if I have to buy 7 separate tags for the 7 toll booths between Bangalore and Chennai, say. Add a trip to Kochi and I might not even have any space to look ahead through my windshield.

Instead, it would be advantageous for all toll operators to appoint a common agency to issue tags and make sure these are operable across all their booths.

Such an agency will have to build operational expertise, but might want to appoint a second agency to develop and operate the software platform.

If all of this falls in place, it will become the best option - don't you agree?

Originally Posted by carboy

Which brings us back to the question - is KYC required because it's issued by a bank or is it issued by a bank, so that KYC can be made mandatory.

Neither. KYC is required because, shorn of all frills, it is basically an electronic system of making a funds transfer. And all funds transfer these days require some level of KYC of both payer and payee.

Early on, not even banks (except ICICI & Equitas) found value in offering Fastag service. Most tags then where from these two banks, or from Paytm which was a wallet operator in those days. In all of Bangalore there was a Fastag desk only at an ICICI Bank branch on Hosur road, and I remember going there and waiting for 2-3 hours just to apply for mine (the actual tag came by post 2 weeks later).

[androdev]

By extension of such logic, individual privacy of a citizen can be completely eliminated by the government. Safety, corruption, public health, etc. are the tools used to encroach on the rights of individuals indiscriminately. Notice how conveniently the big ticket items that matter the most (party funding, election expenses, benami land holdings, proxy company holding, political ownership of all media houses, etc.) are never prioritised.

The primary role of Fastag is efficiency which no one has objection to. You can automate number plate matching with fastag to detect fraudulent use of tags. This surreptitious KYC/Aadhaar nonsense even to take a piss in this country has far more dangerous consequences.

If you are in bed with us (the political class), no amount of rules, digital framework, KYC, etc. will touch you. If you are against us, we will have you where we want in the blink of an eye thanks to all this digital infrastructure. It's almost as if education is being used to come up with a convincing justification for the arbitrary actions of the government instead of questioning where will all this lead to.

[deathwalkr]

Originally Posted by DriverLess

This is on the web portal (not on mobile app). Click on "Account summary" after login. BTW, now, ICICI portal is asking you to submit ID & PAN as soon as you login.

This is on the icici bank web page? For the life of me, i can't seem to find the fastag in the account summary.

[Aviator_guy]

Originally Posted by deathwalkr

This is on the icici bank web page? For the life of me, i can't seem to find the fastag in the account summary.

Try this if it works for you https://fastaglogin.icicibank.com/CU...409.1593153886

[DriverLess]

Originally Posted by deathwalkr

This is on the icici bank web page? For the life of me, i can't seem to find the fastag in the account summary.

No. Fastag portal
https://fastaglogin.icicibank.com/

[vijaykr]

Originally Posted by Masalawheelz

Hello All!

My Fastag was issued by Equitas Bank when I bought the car, about 2 years ago. Now, when I tried to log in at https://fastag.ihmcl.com/, it says that my mobile number is not registered with Fastag and that I should register first. However, there is no option, link or button to register on the website.

Would anyone be able to help with this please?

Thank You!

I'm having the same issue. The page has only option to login but not to signup or create an account. The FAQs also don't mention anything about account creation or maybe I didn't look well enough.

I'll try on the fastag portals of the 2 banks which issued the tags initially. Hopefully they have a way to do the KYC online itself.

[MyLife_MyCar]

Originally Posted by Masalawheelz

Now, when I tried to log in at https://fastag.ihmcl.com/, it says that my mobile number is not registered with Fastag and that I should register first. However, there is no option, link or button to register on the website.

Interestingly, all news and other media channels/websites have mentioned only this URL and same steps, almost like a copy-paste content. No one bothered to check if people are really able to login. No one bothered to tell how to sign up. How would they? They themselves might now know!

That's the kind of journalism I dislike. I mean, this is such a big step affecting millions of people, and no media channel has bothered to check the end to end process and suggest the alternatives!

Anyway, use your issuer bank's portal for now to complete the KYC. Simply Google "<bankname> fastag kyc" and it should give you the correct url.

[JithinR]

What about Paytm FastTag? In that case is the FastTag KYC piggybacking off the Paytm one? I can't really find the website or mobile option for KYC under FastTag (just stuff like details, change vehicle number etc.).

[Aviator_guy]

Don't you all think that we are probably spending more time on debating this topic than it deserves. Govt would do what it wants to do. If it takes KYC to give me a better toll experience, so be it. Anyway there is nothing to hide by getting a mere tag KYC'd so why do we need to worry so much.