Penang state MP and former Minister of Finance Lim Guan Eng has unequivocally stated that the Pakatan Harapan government never approved the changing of official ministerial vehicles from the Proton Perdana to the fully-imported Toyota Vellfire luxury MPV.

According to Malay Mail, the lawmaker urged the current government to be transparent about the rental contract of the Vellfire, which is well known to be more expensive compared to the Perdana.

He adds, “The Harapan government never approved nor did it announce a switch of ministerial official cars from the Proton Perdana 2.4 Premium to Toyota Vellfire 2.5L. This contradicts the Finance Ministry’s recent statement that the proposal to replace the Proton Perdana with other vehicles such as the Vellfire was considered by the previous government but was postponed and only implemented this year,”

According to the Finance Ministry, the monthly payment for a Toyota Vellfire – according to the government’s fleet management service provider, Spanco – is RM 4,851.61, compared to RM 4,854.41 for the Proton Perdana, saving them RM 2.80 a month.

Also read: MoF said a Toyota Vellfire is cheaper than a Perdana. What?

In addition to that, The Ministry of Finance also added that the switch was also due to the fact that Proton Perdana ended production in 2014,  and some of the cars have reached the six-year-old mark and are due for replacing.

While it is true that production of Proton Perdana has ended and the model is no longer on sale –  the common point of discussion is the published rental costs for the Toyota Vellfire versus Proton Perdana Executive, and the fact that it’s a fully imported vehicle, which abandons a long-standing precedent of only using locally-assembled vehicles for official purposes.

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