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 :id:Sistem administrasi manunggal satu atap|One-stop Administration Services Office or Samsat, which is a collaboration between Indonesian National Police, Indonesian Provincial Revenue Service, and Jasa Raharja.

Registration plate design

Design convention

Measured at approximately 460 by 135 mm and constructed from stamped metal sheet. With some exception, 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". 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 or bottom of the plate with following format: NN・NN which denote the month and year of when the plate will expire, 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 July 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 PIK". 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, B is West Jakarta, S is Jakarta Selatan, P is Jakarta Pusat, 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.

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:
Indonesian registration plate area codes

Vehicle classes

There are several classes of the registration plates, each can be distinguished by their color:
s 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.

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 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:
CodeCountry or Organization
CD 12
CD 13
CD 14
CD 15
CD 16
CD 17
CD 18
CD 19
CD 20
CD 21
CD 22
CD 23
CD 24
CD 25
CD 26
CD 27
CD 28
CD 29
CD 30
CD 31
CD 32
CD 33
CD 34
CD 35
CD 36
CD 37
CD 38
CD 39
CD 40
CD 41
CD 42
CD 43
CD 44
CD 45
CD 47
CD 48
CD 49
CD 50
CD 51
CD 52
CD 53
CD 54
CD 55
CD 56
CD 57
CD 58UNDP
CD 59
CD 60
CD 61
CD 62UPU
CD 63
CD 64
CD 65
CD 66
CD 67
CD 68
CD 69
CD 70
CD 71UNICEF
CD 72UNESCO
CD 73FAO
CD 74World Health Organization
CD 75
CD 76Asian Development Bank
CD 77World Bank
CD 78International Monetary Fund
CD 79International Labour Organization
CD 80
CD 81
CD 82
CD 83UNHCR
CD 84WFP
CD 85
CD 86ESCAP
CD 87
CD 88
CD 89UNIC
CD 90International Finance Corporation
CD 91UNTAET
CD 94
CD 96UNIDO
CD 97Red Cross
CD 98
CD 99
CD 100ASEAN Secretariat
CD 101
CD 102
CD 103
CD 105
CD 106AIPO
CD 107
CD 108
CD 109
CD 110
CD 111ASEAN Foundation
CD 112UTUSAN
CD 113CIFOR
CD 114
CD 115
CD 116
CD 117
CD 118
CD 120
CD 121
CD 122UNFPA
CD 123
CD 130
CD 136

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

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 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 Sukarnoputri 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.