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Denpasar. The owners of hundreds of the large motorcycles hogging Bali’s streets owe the administration billions of rupiah in back taxes, officials said on Friday.

Ketut Sudira, head of the Bali Revenue Agency, said 342 of the 712 large-capacity-engine bikes operating on the island did not have complete registration documents, indicating their owners had not paid the taxes on them.

“The bikes in question have been operating in Bali for two to 10 years,” he said, adding the owners owed a total of Rp 1.7 billion ($194,000) a year in back taxes.

Sudira said that in most cases, the lack of paperwork for the vehicles could be attributed to a flourishing illegal bike trade.

By law, all vehicle sales must be registered with the local traffic police, which then issues a new registration document for the new owner and calculates the annual road tax based on the vehicle’s engine capacity, year of manufacture and other parameters.

“When they buy the bikes they don’t receive the original manufacturer’s receipt, the ownership document or other important documentation, so they can’t apply for new registration documents,” Sudira said.

He called on all those who had not paid road taxes to come forward and pay up. For those who owed more than five years of back taxes, he added, the revenue agency would waive the amount of the first five years and only collect the remainder.

The Bali authorities have taken a tougher line on large motorcycles since an incident in April in which a convoy of 200 bikes forced a car carrying Governor Made Mangku Pastika to pull over to let them pass.

The Indonesian Big Motorcycle Association (IMBI) apologized for the incident, in which three bikes were subsequently seized by the police.