FASTag transaction reduced over 3% in September 2026 from August, while the number of tags issued rose, figures published by the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) show. The NPCI’s monthly statistics put September volume at 337.34 million toll and parking transactions, against 351 million in August.

Why this matters? The September figures show a different direction for tag issuance and monthly transaction activity. As the stock of issued tags grew while toll and parking volume declined. It is advisable to distinguish between these two when assessing FASTag’s usage.

September has one of the lowest transaction volumes recorded since April 2026 along with 347.35 million seen in July 2026. May had the highest volume in that period, at 375.23 million transactions with a transaction value of Rs 7,308.07 crore.

Changes over the month:

  • Payment valuation and volume: NPCI recorded tag-based toll payments valuation to be Rs 7,096.35 crore in September, down by Rs 88.68 crore from August’s Rs 7,185.03 crore. The volume of toll and parking transactions also saw a drop in last month, declining 3.89% as it fell by 13.66 million transactions. Meanwhile, Payment value fell by 1.23%, as per NPCI monthly data.
  • Daily valuation and volume: The average daily volume of FASTag transactions also went down slightly in September to 11.25 million from 11.32 in August 2026, even though average daily value hit Rs 236.55 crore, up from Rs 231.78 crore in August. September saw the lowest daily transactions along with July while transactions peaked in May.

Changes over the year

The change looks different over a longer period. India Dispatch’s series tally from last year’s NPCI data shows September 2025 transaction volume as 332.75 million and value as Rs 6,421 crore. On that basis, this year’s September transaction volume has increased by 4.59 million, while value grew by Rs 675.35 crore accounting for 1.38% and 10.52% year-on-year (YoY) growth respectively.

Changes in tag issuance & annual passes:

NPCI data revealed that tag issued in September increased to 130.33 million tags from 129.09 million in August 2026, marking a 12.45 lakh jump in tags between the two months. However, this count is cumulative, unlike the monthly transaction volume and payment value. NPCI listed 40 banks live on the National Electronic Toll Collection (NETC) system in both months.

The annual-pass figures moved in two directions. Pass volume decreased to 80.33 million in September compared to 85.64 million observed in the month before, a 5.31 million drop. However, the annual pass issuance actually went up by 0.19 lakh to record 9.14 lakh annual passes in September 2026 compared to 8.95 lakh in August.

Those annual-pass measures should be read separately from the tag-issuance count. One records monthly pass transactions, another records monthly pass issuance, and the tag figure records issuance to date. A rise in either issuance measure does not, by itself, establish a rise in transactions during the same month.

Recently proposed changes in FASTag

Authorities are also discussing changes to how FASTag could be used, as seen in the recent announcement of OneTag. Launched by Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari at the the Global Fintech Fest (2026), OneTag is a bank-portability feature for the existing NETC FASTag system which lets users keep their FASTag while switching to their preferred bank. Gadkari also set out a timeline for moving toll plazas towards barrier-free collection.

Earlier in August this year, Hyderabad traffic authorities revealed that they are considering a system to collect traffic fines directly from motorists’ FASTag accounts. At that time, the traffic authorities had discussed the proposal with the Hyderabad Metropolitan Development Authority (HMDA) and was waiting for their approval. However, this change is not measured by NPCI’s September toll and parking figures.

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