India’s electronic toll collection network handled fewer transactions in September 2026 than in August, even as the number of FASTags in circulation kept climbing, according to monthly statistics published by the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI).
FASTag toll and parking transactions stood at 337.34 million in September, down 3.89 per cent from about 351 million in August, a month-on-month drop of roughly 13.66 million transactions. The value of these payments slipped 1.23 per cent to ₹7,096.35 crore, from ₹7,185.03 crore in the previous month.
One of the quietest months of FY27 so far
September’s volume is among the lowest recorded since April 2026, alongside July’s 347.35 million. May remains the high point of the current fiscal year, with 375.23 million transactions worth ₹7,308.07 crore.
On a daily basis, average FASTag volumes eased to 11.25 million transactions in September from 11.32 million in August. Average daily value, however, moved the other way, rising to ₹236.55 crore from ₹231.78 crore, which points to a higher average ticket size per toll payment during the month.
Year-on-year growth still positive
The longer-term trend looks healthier. Compared with September 2025, when the system recorded about 332.75 million transactions worth around ₹6,421 crore, volumes this September were up about 1.38 per cent and value was up about 10.52 per cent, based on a comparison of NPCI’s monthly series reported by MediaNama. Value growing far faster than volume suggests that toll revisions and a shift toward higher-value trips are doing more of the work than fresh usage.
Tag base and annual passes keep expanding
While monthly activity softened, the installed base continued to grow. Cumulative FASTag issuance rose to 130.33 million tags in September from 129.09 million in August, an addition of about 12.45 lakh tags in a single month. NPCI listed 40 banks as live on the National Electronic Toll Collection (NETC) system in both months.
Annual-pass data moved in two directions. Monthly annual-pass transactions fell to 80.33 million in September from 85.64 million in August, but issuance of new annual passes rose to 9.14 lakh from 8.95 lakh. These need to be read separately: one tracks trips made on passes, the other tracks new passes sold, and the tag figure is a running total rather than a monthly flow.
What it means for India’s toll payments stack
For banks and payment players that issue FASTags, the numbers underline a familiar dynamic in a maturing payments rail: penetration is close to saturation on national highways, so growth increasingly depends on new use cases rather than new users.
Policymakers are already working on the next phase. A recently announced OneTag feature brings bank portability to existing NETC FASTags, allowing users to switch their issuing bank without replacing the tag, and the government has laid out a roadmap for moving toll plazas toward barrier-free, multi-lane free-flow collection. Separately, traffic authorities in Hyderabad have explored collecting traffic fines directly from FASTag-linked accounts, a move that would push the product beyond tolling and parking.
Together, these changes could turn FASTag from a single-purpose toll instrument into a broader mobility-payments platform, which is where the next leg of transaction growth is likely to come from.
Source: NPCI NETC FASTag monthly statistics, as reported by MediaNama.
