PUTRAJAYA, July 9 — Ministers will not be allowed to receive expensive gifts such as Mercedes-Benz luxury vehicles or even the ubiquitous local marque Proton, but will only be able to accept food, flowers or pewter plaques, the prime minister said today.

Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad declared that this rule — that is aimed at combating corruption and unexplainable assets that do not match income levels — will apply to himself and also the deputy prime minister.

"But of course, if he is given a Mercedes, he has to reject. Not only Mercedes, even Proton cannot,” he said in a press conference after chairing a special Cabinet committee on anti-corruption here.

Dr Mahathir had earlier announced that the special Cabinet committee had decided that the prime minister, deputy prime minister and ministers will be treated as members of the administration and will all have to declare their assets.

"They will not escape legal action if they accept or own assets that they cannot explain how they got the assets, so they all need to declare their assets,” he said, adding that all these administrative members will also have to declare the gifts that they accept and with only certain gifts allowed.

"But we give space, if they receive gifts in the form of flowers or food or items like plaques, which is a type of sign of respect, sometimes made of pewter, that is allowed. But it has to be declared and told to the authorities,” he said.

Dr Mahathir said officers are barred from doing something wrong with the intention of obtaining gifts, adding that they will have to report to the authorities over matters in their respective government departments or ministries that may be considered as corruption.

"We also discussed a few other laws, also for the same purpose to make sure corruption is reduced or get rid of in this country,” he added.

Dr Mahathir's remarks comes just days after former prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak was charged in court under the Penal Code with criminal breach of trust and under a corruption law for power abuse for self-gratification involving RM42 million of state firm 1Malaysia Development Berhad's subsidiary SRC International Sdn Bhd.

Prior to Najib's charging, police raided properties linked to him, with the combined value of the seized cash and luxury items evaluated at an estimated RM1.1 billion.

Dr Mahathir chairs the Pakatan Harapan coalition, which had made combating the alleged corruption under the Barisan Nasional administration a key part of its campaiging in the 14th general elections.