Taxpayers foot RM1.6M bill for ministers' official cars maintenance

The cost of maintenance and repairs for official vehicles of federal ministers between 2020 and 2022 amounted to RM1.6 million, said Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim.

A parliamentary written reply from the Prime Minister, also the Finance Minister, stated that the cost of vehicle maintenance in 2020 was RM672,000, RM478,991.50 in 2021 and RM450,690.66 in 2022. 

There were 32 ministers and 38 deputy ministers in the cabinet when Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin took office in March 2020. He was then replaced by Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaacob in August 2021, maintaining the number of cabinet ministers.

“The RM1.6 million was to bear monthly lease payments which includes rental, maintenance and repairs for each of the official cars,” said Anwar replying to a question from Chong Zhemin (DAP member of parliament for Kampar), who had asked for details on maintenance cost for minister’ official vehicles between 2020 to 2022.

Anwar further clarified that the switch to Toyota Vellfire 2.5L from the Proton Perdana 2.4L as official minister cars at the beginning of April 2021 also resulted in the reduced payments.