Now, there are quarters claiming that ministers receive parking allowance said to be more than RM5,000. This has drawn criticism from social media users, who have described such an amount as excessive.

The amount of emoluments and allowances received by Cabinet members and members of the administration cannot be publicly announced because they are subject to the Official Secrets Act 1972.

However, several ministers and deputy ministers contacted by Bernama have generally confirmed that this parking allowance does not exist.

Foreign Minister Saifuddin Abdullah, in his official Twitter account, said: “As far as I know, I don’t have any parking allowance.”

He was responding to Twitter @1Obefiend, who had questioned the alleged parking allowance of RM5,000 enjoyed by ministers.

A day later, an infographic shared by Twitter account owner @iam_meelo, claimed that ministers received, among others, an entertainment allowance of RM10,500, housing allowance of RM10,800, people’s representative allowance of RM10,650 and parking allowance of RM5,700.

Primary Industries Minister Teresa Kok, in her response, said: “The statement that was viralled recently on ministers being given an allocation of RM5,000 for parking fees is not true.

“Ministers can claim parking fees with receipts under miscellaneous allowances; there being no difference from most other public officials.

“It must be remembered that when Pakatan Harapan (PH) ministers took over from the previous ministers, we took a 10% pay cut. This has been in force from June 2018.”