Registration of imported bikes

Erictheviking

Member
Joined
Jan 11, 2011
There are many questions and rumours out there about registering bikes in Thailand, I hope that below information that I got from the land transport department in Chiang Mai will help, this is for bikes imported in parts and assembled in Thailand.

1. Get invoice/receipt for import duties and taxes for engine, frame and any and all other parts imported.
2. Pay the 3% excise tax (can be done by certain bike shops/agents), this is 3% of new bike value, they will not care that your bike is 15 years old and is worth less than your shoes, it will be 3% of what they reckon it is worth.
4. Take the bike to Samutprakarn for general checks and emissions testing (current rules are the same as California 2008 and onwards -which are less stringent than the current EU rules), this costs 31'000 Baht (just changed from 27'700 Baht) regardless if the bike passes the test or not.
5. Get receipts for any and all other parts that the bike is made up of (lights, plastics etc.)
6. Take the bike back to Chiang Mai with the emissions test report and the excise tax receipt and have it registered for between 1'500 and 2'000 Baht.

The contact details for the test center are:
655 Soi 1 Nikom Utsakham Bangphu (spelling??)
Moo 2 Sukhumvit rd. Km 34 Bangphu Mai
Samutprakarn 10280
Tel: 02 324 0710 Fax: 02 323 9598

Bangkok plates are done following the above but as money changes hands (bribes) the emission tests are not done and the bike actually does not have to appear in Samutprakarn. Typical prices range from 80 to 100 grand. These Bangkok plates can be transferred to other provinces.

Prachinburi plates are apparently done by the "fixer" registering an engine change (your new bikes engine number) for a 90-110 cc step through, scrapping the step through and then stamping its frame number into your bike. The price is typically between 40 and 50 grand. These plates cannot be transferred to other provinces and it is very common knowledge that the plates are bogus.

Short term a Prachinburi plate works but long term no-one knows what may happen -as the frame number has been changed you cannot prove that excise tax has been paid (if you now did bother with the excise tax) and it is possible for the police/customs to take the bike away from you.

Hope that above is informative.
Eric
 
I went through the process of obtaining legit., Thai registration with a foreign registered KTM 990 Adventure . Didn't need to do it in the end, but got to the point of having a letter from Thai Customs, with authority to proceed and a registration book.

Cost in total to register would have been 180,000bht ( for a 1,000,000 bht bike if bought in thailand, 450,000 if bought outside Thailand).

It took 10 months to get to that point.

i have the contact details if someone is interested.
 
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