Paytm To Sell, Recharge eToll Payment Tags In India

Paytm Payments Bank is teaming up with ride-hailing firms — including Ola and Uber — to enable some 100,000 drivers to buy and recharge FASTags at major cities country-wide, DealStreetAsia reported on Sunday (Feb. 23).

Paytm has set up camps for FASTags at Uber Green zones in Delhi-NCR, Bangalore, Chennai Kerala, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Guwahati, Pune, Ahmedabad, Mumbai, and Chandigarh.

The payments firm is also collaborating with Ola at Bangalore airport and other local locations including Indira Nagar, Devanahalli, and Electronic City transport hubs.

This latest campaign targets gig economy drivers and follows Paytm’s re-signing of an exclusive payment partnership with Uber.

“We are happy to partner with Ola and Uber and bring their driver-partners to the formal banking system. We have a dedicated team to train them about how to use Paytm FASTags. We are also encouraging them to use Paytm banking services to transact digitally. Our efforts are well-aligned with the government’s mission to ensure vehicles are equipped with toll tags,” said Satish Kumar Gupta, managing director of Paytm Payments Bank, in a statement.

FASTags are prepaid rechargeable tags for toll collection that allow automatic payment deduction from a transponder affixed on a vehicle’s windshield. The electronic toll collection system is operated by the National Highway Authority of India.

Paytm started focusing on selling FASTags after they became mandatory on Jan. 15 and says it supplies the most FASTags in the country, having sold over 3 million. It doesn’t require a separate prepaid account for FASTag; tolls are auto-debited from the Paytm wallet.

Paytm manages more than 110 toll plazas and has expansion plans in the works across national and state highways.

In December, the Reserve Bank of India allowed non-bank prepaid payments (PPIs) and Unified Payments Interface (UPI) to link to FASTags. The tag will allow for the money to be deducted while the car is in motion, using radio frequency identification (RFID) technology.

Union Minister of Road Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari said that there have been 10 million FASTags issued so far.