Vehicle registration plates of Indonesia

All motorized vehicles including motorcycles in Indonesia are required to have registration plates. The plates is required to be displayed in front and at the back of the vehicles. The issuing of the number plates is regulated and administered by the (Indonesian: "Sistem Administrasi Manunggal Satu Atap") or Samsat, which is a collaboration between Indonesian National Police, provincial offices of regional revenue, and Jasa Raharja.
Registration plate design.
Design convention.
Measured at approximately 460 by 135 mm and constructed from stamped metal sheet. With some exception (see below), vehicle registration plate in Indonesia use the following format: LL NNNN LL where "L" are letters of the Latin alphabet, and "N" numbers from "0" to "9" (note that the first number is never a "0"). The first single or double letter prefixes denote the area of registration. This is followed by number between 1 and 9999 without leading zeroes. This is then followed by one or two letters although they may be optional. For example: DK 1126 GI is a vehicle registered in Bali region, because it begins with DK. A smaller, four digit numbers separated by dot is located at the top (old format, with horizontal line as divider) or bottom (newer format, commonly without divider) of the plate with following format: NN・NN which denote the month and year of when the plate will expire (e.g. 11.23 means until November 2023), and the owner must pay the tax to renew it every five years .
A new format was recently introduced which have three suffix letters, due to the increase of motorized vehicle numbers. At first, this format is used for motorcycles since September 2008 until present, for cars in Jakarta, Tangerang, Bekasi and Depok. In the three suffix letters of this new format, the first letter divides the Jakarta area into sub areas. For example, The prefix of the whole number plate for Jakarta vehicles is "B". For example, "B 1106 SG" indicates it is from Jakarta. But under the new system, the B indicator is not enough. The new system is E.g. "B 2267 PKX". There are now three suffix letters. The last two letters are random, but the first letter out of the three dictates the sub areas in Jakarta like: Z is Depok, T is East Jakarta (Jakarta Timur), B is West Jakarta (Jakarta Barat), S is Jakarta Selatan (Southern Jakarta), P is Jakarta Pusat (Central Jakarta), etc. Note that for vehicle plates in Tangerang, Depok, and Bekasi still begins with B from the first letter of the whole plate number which is still representing Jakarta although it is from a different province that Tangerang is in the province of Banten, and Depok and Bekasi is in the province of West Java. It is representing Jakarta, because the three cities are represented as sub areas of Jakarta, because the distance from Jakarta and those three cities are very near.
A separate format exists for private vehicles belonging to government, military or police officials. Because most of these officials are based in Jakarta, Vehicles belonging to state officials use the "B" suffix which indicates the vehicle is from Jakarta, along with the 4 numbers which are assigned to the vehicle. However, the sub-area suffix is replaced with an "RF" suffix code indicating that the vehicle belongs to a state official, followed by another letter which indicates the type of state official which owns the vehicle.
For example, "B 1703 RFS" indicates that the vehicle belongs to a civilian official, whilst "B 1148 RFP" indicates that the vehicle belongs to a police official.
Note that police, military and government-owned vehicles each have their own special plate design, which can be seen in the "Vehicle Classes" section further below.
Registration area codes.
The lettering convention to denote area of registration is a legacy of the Dutch colonial era and do not reflect the current regional divisions of the country into provinces. Instead, they follow the old system of Dutch "Karesidenan" or residencies lettering systems.
In general, plates that start with K are from Kalimantan Island, A is generally used in south-central Java, such as Yogyakarta, Surakarta. D for the group of islands east of Java, such as Bali, Lombok, Sulawesi, and Maluku. B is generally used in Sumatra but only alongside another letter – B as a single letter is only for vehicles registered in the Jakarta Metropolitan Area.
The list of area codes are:
Vehicle classes.
There are several classes of the registration plates, each can be distinguished by their color:
Emergency vehicles.
Emergency vehicles such as ambulances uses white on black or white on red depending on the ownership of the vehicle itself, if owned by private medical services or hospital, the plate is white on black, while the plate for ambulance provided by the government is white on red. For fire trucks, the plate is always white on red, because all fire departments are government-owned and opposition-owned. Police vehicles have special plates (see above).
Trucks and buses.
For trucks, the plate colors may differ, some are officially black on yellow, but some that are issued by private contract are white on black. If a bus is used for public transport such as city buses, black on yellow plates are used, but for private use buses, the plates are white on black.
Special plate designs.
Government vehicles.
Government vehicles have special registration plates. Anytime the government officials go to outside the capital or going out from Indonesia, the plates will be placed on the vehicles which is ridden by the government officials.
Senior government officials.
Vehicle registration plates belonging to senior government officials like the President or Vice President always begin with RI (which stands for "Republik Indonesia") and are followed by a number. For example, the president's registration plate is "RI-1", and the vice president's is "RI-2". Other senior officials such as government ministers, Chairman of The House of Representatives, Commander of The National Armed Forces and Chief of National Police also share the same convention and get the numbers after the President and Vice President. These plates are used for everyday activities, so they are white on black design.
In a special case, there are some very special numbers which are "INDONESIA 1" and "INDONESIA 2" for the President and Vice President, respectively. These numbers are used for a ceremonial purposes, such as presidential/vice presidential inaugurations, national day ceremonies and armed forces day. On the inauguration day, at the time the new president/vice president take the oath, the plates are moved from the former presidential/vice presidential cars to the new car. These numbers also being used for all ceremonial presidential/vice presidential cars, no matters what the type of the vehicles used, and being white on red design.
Foreign countries or international organizations.
Registration plates for vehicles belonging to foreign countries or international organizations adopt a different convention. They have black letters on a white background.
The plates have the letter CD followed by two or three digits denoting the country or organization, followed by up to three digits of the serial number. For example, a car with number CD 66 88 is owned by Vietnam. Generally, the number 01 is reserved for the ambassador's official vehicle.
The numbers are ordered based on when they recognized Indonesia as a country. The United States was originally assigned CD 13; due to the stigma associated with the number 13, they asked the Indian delegation to exchange numbers.
The list of countries and organizations follows:
Consulates also use the same format, but instead of using the letters CD, they use CC.
Some foreign countries and international organization vehicles in Jakarta use the " B xxxxx yyy " format and a normal white on black plate. Where "xxxxx" stands for five random digits, and "yyy" stands for the country / organization code (see above)
Vanity plates.
A few vehicle owners pay an extra amount of money to get a certain plate as their desire. Because the convention is not flexible to include a full word, people try creative uses of numbers and letters. For example, Idris Sardi, a violin player, uses (B 10 LA) for his vehicle. It is a play on the word "BIOLA" which means "violin" in Indonesian. Leoni, a famous actress and singer, uses "L 30 NI" for her car. Even the former President Megawati Soekarnoputri chooses "M 3 GA" for her personal vehicle, as the plate resembles her broadly-known nickname. Edhie Bhaskoro Yudhoyono, former President Yudhoyono's younger son, has "B 24 EB", which "EB" is being his name initial. With the new format of three suffix alphabets, many vanity or personal registration plates are possible to be created. For example, a Toyota Fortuner owner may choose the plate B 42 NER which sounds like B "four-two-NER". Syahrini, an Indonesian singer, has "B 1 SYR" as her registration plate number, with "SYR" being her initials.
External links.
Indonesian license plates – Operation of Indonesian license plates 