Sittwe motor cyclists complain registration fees as exorbitant

Narinjara News,  10 October2022

Motor cyclists in Rakhine State’s Sittwe have complained that the registration fees set by the State government as ‘exorbitant’.

The State’s Road Transport Administration Department has been accepting registration of motorcycles having no registration previously.

The owners are required to present household registration, national identity cards, recommendation documents from the ward, the police and the traffic police in applying for registration of their motorbikes.

The Road Transport Administration Department has set different fees depending on the types of the machines.

The fees include the costs for all documents necessary in the registration process.

A Thai-made Dream 125 motor bike would cost K350,000, a Wave 100 K150,000 and a Click 150 about K400,000 for registration, according to new license rates announced by the department.

A motor cycle dealer in Sittwe, U Than, said the rates were too high for the basic people and would like the department to lower the rates as much as possible.

“For those who can’t afford to pay for the registration, they can’t do anything with the bike even though they own the machine,” he said.

“For those who own a China brand for which they have paid K450,000 or K500,000, the registration fees of K150,000 or K200,000 will not be affordable. This is the situation currently happening. That is why we want the fees to reduce as much as possible,” said U Than.

The owners will be affordable only if the fees are lower, according to a Kaman national from Sittwe, U Hla Myint.

“When we go to Ka-Nya-Na (the road transport administration department), they demand K2 lakhs or K2 and half lakhs. How can some people afford,” he said.

“So, they do not register their bikes and get arrested by traffic police.   We would like to ask some leniency for those people. This is our expectation,” he said.

A combined team of military council personnel, traffic police and local police have been increasingly conducting checks on driving license and vehicle license in every town in the entire Rakhine State since August and more arrests made.

If the team found the ones with expired license during the inspection, they were told to pay penalties of up to about K100,000, it is learnt.