WITH the Finance Ministry (MOF) defending its decision to change the Cabinet team’s official vehicles from Proton Perdana to Toyota Vellfire, the public took to social media to vent out their anger.

“Saja nak pakai Vellfire kan (you just want to get Vellfire)… no need to give nonsense justification lah. Kami tak bodoh (we’re not stupid),” said user Nurlina Hussin.

User Bx Ho added:

In April, the Perikatan Nasional Government decided to change its fleet of official cars for its Cabinet from Perdana to Vellfire.

It was done when the country was in the state of Emergency due to the COVID-19 crisis where the Parliament was prorogued, leaving MPs little avenue to scrutinise public expenditures.

Yesterday, the MOF defended the purchase by saying that changing from Proton Perdana 2.4 Premium to Toyota Vellfire 2.5L would result in reduced payments.

It added that the monthly payment for a Toyota Vellfire 2.5L was RM4,851.61, compared to RM4,854.41 for a Proton Perdana 2.4 Premium.

“The decision to switch models was based partly on the lower monthly cost for the Toyota Vellfire 2.5 compared to that of the Proton Perdana 2.4 Premium,” Bernama reported the MOF as saying.

Penny wise, pound foolish

However, netizens were unimpressed with MOF’s defence and took it to task for attempting to hoodwink the public.

User Tracy Chan Wai Fong stated:

On that note, user Sean Teoh said that based on MOF’s reasoning, one should ponder on why it was more cost effective to maintain a foreign-made vehicle compared to the ones locally manufactured. – Nov 8, 2021