Official Cars For Ministers Change From Proton Perdana To Toyota Vellfire
The government pays RM5,759.35 in rental and maintenance costs per month for each Toyota Vellfire.
By Yap Wan Xiang — 05 Nov 2021, 01:05 PM
The official vehicles for Cabinet Ministers have been changed from Proton Perdana 2.4L to Toyota Vellfire 2.5L since April 2021, Finance Minister Tengku Datuk Seri Zafrul Abdul Aziz shared recently
Zafrul made the revelation in a written parliamentary reply dated 2 November to Bayan Baru member of Parliament (MP) Sim Tze Tzin.
Sim asked the Finance Minister how much has the government spent to provide Vellfire vehicles to ministers from March 2020 until now.
He also asked how much does it cost to rent a Vellfire from the Spanco concession company per month.
In the written reply, Zafrul said, up until September this year, the government had paid RM1.42 million to the concession company
"The government pays a monthly lease of RM5,759.35 for (each) Toyota Vellfire. The cost of the monthly lease consists of RM4,851.61 for the monthly rental costs and RM907.74 for the maintenance costs," said the minister.
After Zafrul's response, Sim took to Facebook to question Perikatan Nasional's (PN) extravagant expenditure while the nation is fighting economic hardships
In the post published on 3 November, he said the rakyat gets to enjoy various financial aids in Bajet 2021, such as young people will receive RM150 in e-wallet credit and civil servants will receive a one-off RM700 payment.
In hindsight, the Bayan Baru MP said it is the ministers from PN, PAS, and Barisan Nasional (BN) that receive the most "aid".
"They get 'Vellfire car aid' of RM 5,759.35 per month. Congratulations," the MP sarcastically said.
Sim, who is aligned with PKR, also posted a photo of an old statement made by former premier Datuk Seri Najib Razak and said there were people who criticised Pakatan Harapan (PH) when the then government considered changing their official vehicles.
"Now they enjoy this facility without feeling embarrassed. All the previous protests seem to have been poured into the sea of the straits of Melaka," he added, before singling out Najib for being a loud critic of PH on the fiasco but is now quiet on the issue.
Meanwhile, PKR Youth pointed out that the expenditure on the Vellfire vehicles account for 41 units, but the Cabinet only has 32 ministers, reported Malaysiakini.
"So, who is using the remaining nine Vellfire cars? Are the ministerial-level special envoys also enjoying the same facilities?" asked PKR Youth secretary Syukri Razab.
In December 2019, when PH was still in power, the then government considered switching from Perdana to Vellfire due to the former's shortage as the vehicle was no longer in production
However, the PH government later decided against it after the appointed company confirmed that there were enough Perdana vehicles for government officials, reported Malaysiakini.
For context, a 2018 model of Proton Perdana 2.4L costs about RM138,000, while a 2021 model of Toyota Vellfire costs about RM368,000.
When Najib was asked to comment on Zafrul's recent revelation, he said he should not be blamed as he is not involved in the matter.
He pushed the blame to the seventh premier Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad's administration for proposing Vellfire as official vehicles and eighth premier Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin's administration for materialising the proposal in April 2021 when the country was under emergency rule and had no Parliament sittings.
