Unregistered Vehicle Owners Paying Huge Bribes in Mon State
In Mon State’s Thaton, Kyaikto, and Bilin townships, owners of unregistered vehicles are having to pay millions of MMK in bribes to junta officials to retrieve their vehicles after they have been confiscated.
Since 1 June 2025, the junta authorities, under orders from the Illegal Trade Eradication Steering Committee, have been cracking down on unregistered vehicles in several states and regions, including Mon State. This followed an order made by coup leader Min Aung Hlaing to crack down on unregistered vehicles made at a meeting in Naypyidaw on 20 May.
Junta officials have been using the crackdown as an opportunity to take huge bribes of millions of MMK from unfortunate owners of unregistered vehicles who have been caught and want their vehicles back.
In Mon State, inspection teams made up of officers from various junta departments have been deployed at busy intersections in urban areas and within villages to identify and confiscate unregistered vehicles. When they seize vehicles they offer to return them to their owners in exchange for bribes ranging from 300,000 to 500,000 MMK for motorcycles and up to 4 million MMK for cars, according to a woman from Bilin Township.
She said: “In Bilin Town, they seized around 30 motorbikes in just one day during the checks on 1 June. The owners had to pay 300,000 MMK each to get their bikes back. We’ve also heard that in Thaton Township, inspection teams have even gone into villages and confiscated unregistered vehicles there too.”
In Kyaikto Township, the fee to release unregistered motorcycles and motorcycles with sidecars is reportedly around 500,000 MMK, while unregistered cars are being released for about 3 million MMK, according to a Kyaikto Township resident who spoke to KIC.
He said: “If someone gets caught with an unregistered vehicle, they basically have two choices: either pay up to get both themselves and their vehicle released, or face arrest. If no case has been filed against them yet, there’s still a chance to negotiate their release. We’ve heard the fee for motorcycles is around 500,000 MMK each, and 3 million MMK for cars.”
As the junta’s crackdown on unregistered vehicles intensifies in Mon State, many motorcycle taxi services throughout the state have been forced to temporarily suspend their services because their vehicles are unregistered. This has led to lighter traffic on the roads of Mon State.
The junta has also been cracking down on unregistered vehicles in neighbouring Karen State in a similar way. There, many organisations that use vehicles to supply relief and emergency services, such as ambulance services, have also been forced to suspend their services because they use unregistered vehicles and the junta has refused to exclude such vehicles from its crackdown.
