IPOH, Aug 29 — The Perak government today denied giving false information on tax exemption for the purchase of 16 Toyota Camry cars at the State Legislative Assembly sitting last July.

Mentri Besar Datuk Seri Ahmad Faizal Azumu said the claim by Perak Opposition leader, Datuk Saarani Mohamad that the government had lied when answering a question on the purchase at the sitting, was not true.

"If we (state government) had given the information that we had with us but that information was inaccurate, that was not lying but only giving inaccurate information that might have been given by an officer and so on.

"But it is an act of lying if we knew the prime minister was thieving but we didn’t inform the state assembly about it and defending him in Parliament,” he told reporters after opening the Lawn Bowls Championships for the Perak Menteri Besar Trophy 2019 at the Lawn Bowls Arena, here, today.

The inaugural event, being held from yesterday until this Sunday, sees the participation of 48 teams from the states and clubs in Malaysia, as well as six foreign teams including from Thailand, South Korea and India.

At a press conference yesterday, Saarani called on the state government to explain in detail to the public on the purchase of the Toyota Camry cars used by the state executive councillors.

This was because state Religious and Islamic Education, Rural and Entrepreneur Development Committee chairman, Asmuni Awi had at the state assembly sitting on July 24, stated that the market price per unit of the Toyota Camry cars was RM190,000, but the state government paid RM109,000 for it, resulting in a cost savings of RM81,000 through a tax rebate.

Saarani, hence, regarded this as lying to the state assembly as the Hansard stated that there was tax exemption on the purchase of the vehicles but a statement from the Finance Ministry last Tuesday said otherwise.

According to the ministry’s statement, it had never received any application from the Perak state government nor given it duty/tax exemption on the procurement of the Toyota Camry CBU units.

Meanwhile, Ahmad Faizal reiterated that the purchase of these cars was not adverse but saving costs as the car company gave free maintenance of the cars for a period of five years, hence the purchase decision made by the state government was apt. — Bernama