Minister of Finance Yuval Steinitz has instructed his director general to examine cancelling the new tender for cabinet ministers' cars. The new tender caused widespread criticism due to the extravagant expense at a time of financial difficulties, lower tax revenues and rising government budget deficits.
Yesterday the Ministry of Finance's Motor Vehicle Administration picked the BMW 528i as the next car for cabinet ministers. The consumer price of the BMW 528i is NIS 398,000, although ministers are also to be given the option of a Citroen C5, which sells for one third of the price and has a 1.6 turbo engine.
The BMW 528i has a 258-horsepower engine, and can go from 0 to 100 km/h in 6.7 seconds.
Publication of the results of the tender caused media fury and in the wake of a wave of criticism, Steinitz expressed reservations that some of the minister cars were blatantly luxurious and are high priced. Steinitz believes that in selecting the cars appropriate for a minister one of the considerations, in addition to the price, should be public appearances.
An official statement from the Ministry of Finance said, "Finance Minister Steinitz will instruct the director general to examine if from an administrative and legal point of view a new tender should be issued, while restricting the maximum price of minister's cars, so that blatantly luxurious cars will be left out of the frame."
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on July 12, 2012
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