KOCHI: Are you in the habit of checking your FASTag balance routinely? If not, how would you know if you’ve not been remitting toll charges for travel not done?
A car owner in Kochi was surprised when he realised that toll charge had been deducted from his FASTag account, though he hadn’t passed through the toll gate at Kumbalam. The incident occurred last Sunday. Bijoy Chandran, a marketing executive, said he and his family were in the city the entire day and never ventured out towards Kumbalam side.
“I was checking the messages on my phone in the evening and was taken aback to find Rs 45 deducted at Kumbalam toll plaza at 11.32am. I logged into the application and found the amount had indeed been debited from my account. I had not travelled in that direction that day,” he said.
A complaint was registered and CCTV footage at the plaza was examined. This confirmed that it was another car that had passed through the plaza at the exact time when the charge was deducted.
“It was a technical glitch. The scanner misread the RFID number. The FASTag account of the vehicle that passed was ......3A0 and the charge was deducted from the account ....3E0,” said a toll plaza employee.
“How can machines get it wrong? If I hadn’t checked my SMS I would have never known about it,” Bijoy said.
The employee admits that such instances are not a one-off. “There have been instances when FASTag recharges via online or through mobile apps have been credited to other accounts. And it’s only when drivers pass through toll plazas that they realise their accounts lack sufficient balance,” he said.
For whom the alarm bells toll
1) In the event of an erroneous payment record, call and register a complaint with customer care: the number is displayed on the back of the tag
2) Provide vehicle number and time of deduction of toll charge to demand ‘chargeback’
3) If you receive no reply or there has been no refund in 15 days, contact the toll plaza. (Contact number of Kumbalam toll plaza: 7025277806)