Karnataka govt to buy new Toyota cars for 33 ministers at a cost of Rs 9.9 crore

The cars will be procured directly from Toyota Kirloskar Private Ltd at ex-showroom rates inclusive of GST under a clause of the Karnataka Transparency in Public Procurements Act 1999 that allows the government to waive in special cases procurement rules that require a bidding process for government purchases.

Section 4 (g) of the KTPP Act allows waiver of procurement norms “in respect of specific procurements as may be notified by the Government from time to time”.

The ministers have been seeking new cars to replace the Toyota Innova Crysta cars used by BJP ministers from 2019 to 2023 on the grounds that most of them had notched up over one lakh km in mileage.

There was a proposal in June to buy new cars for the 33 Congress ministers, but a demand that was moved through a wing of the Department of Personnel and Administration was stalled by the chief minister on account of the government focus being on implementing poll guarantees valued at over Rs 50,000 crore.

There has been a renewed demand in recent weeks by ministers for new cars. “As per the government guidelines, the cars of ministers can be replaced if they have clocked over a lakh in mileage. The car I have been given has run over 1 lakh km. We have heard that the government has initiated a move to provide new cars,” a first-time minister said.

The move to buy new cars for the ministers comes at a time when the state is considering declaring a drought on account of deficient rainfall.

Senior officials in the DPAR refused to comment on the procurement and its timeline. The officials, however, denied that the procurement was being done under a special clause of the KTPP Act that allows waiver of the rules for procurements during a drought (which is covered by section 4 (a) of the Act).

Officials said it was a matter of convention to replace ministers’ old cars with new ones when a new government takes over after the end of the previous government’s tenure.

The Opposition BJP has questioned the move, citing the drought situation in the state. “Only real “guarantee” that UPA/I.N.D.I.A represents – of exploiting public resources for themselves. They hv done this for years in true dynastic fashion n continue to do this,” Union minister Rajeev Chandrashekhar, who hails from Karnataka, wrote on social media on Saturday.