Just when vehicle owners thought they were done with compliance fatigue—having paid for smart number plates and e-registrations—they now find themselves staring at yet another bureaucratic hurdle: know-your-vehicle (KYV) verification. Rolled out quietly but enforced stringently since August 2024, the KYV mandate for FASTag users has triggered widespread resentment, with many calling it a form of 'digital harassment'. According to National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI)'s October 2024 circular, re-KYV is to be done every three years.
On paper, KYV sounds like a security measure—linking your FASTag to actual vehicle details and images to prevent fraud. But in practice, it feels like a privacy minefield and a logistical nightmare for countless law-abiding citizens.
What is even more surprising is that, to maintain a standardised and reliable database across all toll collection points, details like the vehicle registration number (VRN), chassis number, and engine number provided during the FASTag application are already verified with the VAHAN database to confirm their accuracy and authenticity. No surprises, then, that frustrated vehicle owners are questioning the real purpose behind the additional KYV requirement.
What is KYV and why is it required?
The KYV process mandates vehicle owners to upload clear, well-lit images of their vehicle, including front and side angles, ensuring the FASTag sticker is visible on the windshield, and the number plate is legible. In addition, images of the registration certificate (RC)—front and back—must be uploaded. Only unmasked digital copies sourced from DigiLocker or mParivahan are accepted.
The intent may be administrative accuracy, but for vehicle owners, it’s yet another 'compliance compulsion' added to an already overloaded list.
Users Voice Frustration: ‘Make life hell, not ease of living’
“I am sure my car photos will be rejected a dozen times—for angle, clarity, shadows, or god knows what,” one frustrated car owner posted on social media. “We just paid for smart number plates. Why should we have to do this again? What is the point?”
Vehicle owners are not protesting the idea of accountability—but the sheer rigidity of the image requirements, the lack of clear communication, and the repetitive nature of KYV after already submitting registration and identification proofs during FASTag purchase.
The process requires:
- Front view photo showing vehicle edges, number plate, and FASTag
- Side view showing front and rear edges
- Internal photo of the FASTag sticker showing the serial number
- Digital RC copy from authorised apps (no screenshots or edited versions)
Some users sarcastically suggested that vehicles may be impounded for not meeting photo standards, highlighting just how intrusive the requirements feel.
Enforcement without Empathy
The NPCI’s directive to all FASTag-issuing banks calls for:
- Automatic deactivation of tags without a valid KYV
- Blocking duplicate tags linked to the same vehicle registration number (VRN)
- Ensuring faulty or manual entries are weeded out
- Mandating re-KYV every three years or whenever deficiencies are found
While these protocols may sound reasonable to administrators, they have been enforced without any grace period or public awareness campaign. For lakhs of users who already have functioning FASTags, this feels like retroactive punishment.
Moreover, many banks have buried KYV requirements deep inside customer portals without proactive SMS or email alerts. In several cases, users only realised their FASTag had stopped working while crossing toll plazas, leading to fines and confusion.
Where is the Consumer Convenience?
The entire FASTag system was introduced with the promise of seamless travel and cashless tolling. Yet, with frequent new requirements like KYV, mandatory re-verification, and poorly designed mobile interfaces, that promise now seems like an afterthought.
Most troubling is the burden of proof placed on the consumer. Uploading high-quality, perfectly angled images is a non-trivial task, especially for senior citizens or those without digital literacy.
The rule also fails to account for edge cases: what if a sticker was damaged but the tolls continued to work? What happens if someone changes their car’s number plate or upgrades their vehicle? The process offers no clarity on such transitions.
An unreasonable ask in the name of security?
Security and fraud prevention are important, but regulatory overreach without thoughtful execution leads to public resentment. Like KYC in the banking sector, KYV now feels like a 'tick-the-box' ritual that punishes the average consumer instead of deterring bad actors.
If the authorities truly want to ensure compliance, they must:
- Streamline the process across all bank portals
- Allow flexibility in image uploads with AI-driven tools to auto-correct minor deficiencies
- Launch awareness campaigns instead of issuing silent mandates
- Avoid penalising users who have already followed previous FASTag rules
The lack of transparency around how photos are judged, or what counts as an 'acceptable' image, only worsens the anxiety.
In a country already weary of document uploads, verification cycles, and overlapping compliance regimes, the KYV requirement comes as one more avoidable stress point. Instead of 'ease of living', it seems the average citizen is once again stuck in a cycle of photo submissions, digital portals, and faceless rejections.
Unless corrected with empathy, KYV might become a textbook example of how good intentions go wrong when applied without consideration for the end-user.
Pl carefully read the above article and readers' comments and tell me if even the Directors of the Board can themselves implement these onerous guidelines for their personal vehicles.
Most authoritarian and ivory tower, bureaucratic directions!
Instead of tracking criminals who are misusing your fastag system for stolen cars, you are by these guidelines treating the entire car owning population of the country as criminals and asking them to prove their innocence!
Please get some eminent human rights lawyers to whet your guidelines and mandates before you issue them.
rgds
among bureaucracy as to who can make life more hellish.KYV is Kill Your Vehicle and KYC is Kill Your Customer.