More than a million motorcycles are plying the roads across the country without registration with the BRTA mainly because of higher registration costs and dilly-dallying of law enforcement agencies, sources said.
Officials of the Bangladesh Road Transport Authority (BRTA) said this illegal practice has been creating serious threat to public safety and causing large amount of revenue losses to the government.
Also worrying is the fact that the majority of the bikers are mostly between 18 and 35 years.
Traffic police department sources said on an average, six to seven out of every 10 such motor cyclists are found to ride in the city without registration.
The scenario is worst in towns and rural areas across the country. In these areas more than eighty per cent of motorbikes are running without registration, they added.
BRTA data showed the number of motorcycle registration with the office has been gradually decreasing for the last four to five years, whereas motorcycle industry sources say that the sales of such bikes have dramatically increased in the same period mainly because of severe traffic congestion and easy transportation facility.
According to the BRTA, a total of 1,09,110 motorcycles were registered with its offices across the country in the year 2010 which came down to only 85,808 in the last calendar year (2013).
The annual sales of motorcycles during the period were more or less 3,00,000 to 3,50,000, industry insiders said.
"I have bought a 110cc motor bike at a cost of Tk 82,000 and its registration charge is Tk 22,000, or more than 26 per cent of the purchase price. It is unreasonable and unaffordable for a middle income person like me," Abir Hossain, a motorbike owner who is using his bike for the last two years without registration told the FE.
"If the government reducing the registration cost to around Tk 10,000 then I think no biker will ply without registration. Thus the total revenue income of the government will also be increased," he added.
"Besides, using motorbikes saves working hours of people to a great extent. So the government should take this into consideration," he said,
Md Amdadul Hoque Sarker, executive director of Walton, a leading motor parts producer, assembler and distributor of the country said if the government reduces registration fees and make it mandatory for the importers and producers to do registration before delivery to the customers then such illegal practice would stop and at the same time government's revenue income would also be increased.
"We are ready to assist the government. But at present we cannot do more in this regard rather than encouraging the customers to be registered," he added.
However, according to officials at the BRTA, registration charges of motorbike almost doubled within the last four years.
The sources said the dilly-dallying of BRTA and law enforcement agencies in issuing and checking of registration of the large number of motor bikes caused loss of around Tk 15 billion in revenue to the government.
Presently BRTA charges around Tk 14,468 for registration of a 80cc motorcycle, Tk 20,218 for 100cc and Tk 21,828 for 150cc which was less than Tk 8,000, Tk 12,500 and Tk 13,400 respectively in the year 2009.
"It is also worrying that in many cases we do not find more than seven bikes out of ten genuinely registered, when checked," a traffic sergeant told the FE Sunday preferring anonymity.
"If we become strict over this illegal practice then in most of the cases we face different types of pressure from political parties or other pressure groups," he added.
The traffic sergeant also said motor bikes are being used in muggings and some other criminal activities which cannot be traced because those have no registration.
However, a senior official at the traffic department said they are trying to check the illegal practice through conducting mobile courts and frequent drives.
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