Officials from the local administration for industry and commerce in Hangzhou, capital of East China's Zhejiang province, said on Monday it has fined Japanese carmaker Toyota's auto finance unit in China for involvement in commercial bribery.

This is the first commercial bribery fine for both Toyota Motor Finance (China) Co Ltd and Toyota Motor Corp, the administration said in a statement.

Toyota Motor Finance (China) Co Ltd offered rebates to encourage three dealers to have customers get loans from Toyota, rather than from local banks, between August 2008 and April 2010, it said.

The auto finance company illegally took in 426,352 yuan (US$63,493) from 49 borrowers after business taxes, officials said.

The agency said it will confiscate all illegal earnings and impose a fine of 140,000 yuan.