The Finance Ministry said the recent purchase of Toyota Camrys by state governments did not receive an excise duty exemption as the vehicles are no longer assembled locally.

This is after Penang Chief Minister Chow Kon Yew, in a Sin Chew Daily report last Sunday, pointed out that both the Penang and Perak governments had purchased the same Toyota Camry vehicles, but Penang had to pay more as it failed to secure a tax exemption.

However, the Finance Ministry, in a statement today, maintained that it had never granted the Perak government a tax exemption.

Last Friday, Penang state finance officer Sarul Bahiyah Abu announced that the Penang government had purchased 15 new Toyota Camrys as official cars for its exco members after the exco meeting approved the buy on March 13.

The vehicles cost RM184,912.50 each after discount, for a total of RM2.77 million.

However, the Perak government claimed it acquired 16 Toyota Camrys at around RM109,000 each, for a total of around RM1.744 million.

Perak exco Asmuni Awi (above) had last month told the Perak state assembly that this was because the state government received a tax rebate and other discounts totalling RM81,000 per Toyota Camry.

"For the procurement by the Perak government, the Finance Ministry never received any application for duty/tax exemption for the procurement of imported Toyota Camrys, and no approval was granted to the Perak government with regard to duty/tax exemption.

"It should be emphasised that the Finance Ministry does not approve duty/tax exemption to state governments for imported, complete built unit (CBU) vehicles.

"Therefore, the claim that the Perak government received duty/tax exemption, but the Penang government did not is untrue," said the Finance Ministry.

It noted that the Penang government had applied on March 4 for a duty exemption on the procurement of imported Toyota Camrys. Likewise, it said the Selangor government had in November 28 last year also made a similar application.

However, it said both applications were not considered by the Finance Ministry.

"It is in line with the government's procurement policy that the procurement of government vehicles should only be done through local manufacturers or are complete knocked down (CKD), unless there are specific needs by a department," it said. CKD refers to locally assembled vehicles.

The Penang government had made a similar acquisition in 2013 for RM1.7 million.

"The procurement of CKD Toyota Camry in 2013 received duty/tax exemption... as the model was a CKD saloon at that time.

"However, seeing that the model is no longer assembled in the country, the procurement of imported Toyota Camrys by the Penang government this year does not qualify for a duty/tax exemption," it said.