Loan fee under review

Tuesday June 3, 2008

Loan fee under review


PUTRAJAYA: The Government is reviewing the 3% administration fee for the National Higher Education Fund Corporation (PTPTN) loans.

“We are reviewing the administration charges so that it won’t burden the students. All I can say now is that it won’t go up,” said Higher Education Minister Datuk Seri Mohamed Khaled Nordin.

He added that the Government wanted to ensure that the fee reflected the operational costs of disbursing the loans.

“We recognise that not all loan recipients are able to obtain jobs, and for those who do, their salaries may not be be commensurate with their qualifications,” he told The Star in an interview.

Khaled added that the Government was also reviewing the loan ceiling to reflect the higher cost of living.

These were the issues brought up by student leaders in a meeting recently,

Methods of collection for the PTPTN loans were also being reviewed to increase repayment and reduce defaulters.

“We are looking at ways of collection that will not be burdensome to students,” said Khaled.

PTPTN has started issuing summonses to borrowers as well as blacklisting those who want to travel overseas. It has also appointed agents to obtain the latest addresses of PTPTN borrowers.

“So far, 9,040 summonses have been filed while 14,375 borrowers have been blacklisted by the Immigration Department,” said Khaled.

A total of 9,326 borrowers working in government agencies, government linked companies and public and public and private higher education institutions would also be paying off their loans through salary deductions, he said.

As of Feb 28, PTPTN had collected RM738mil from 353,181 borrowers and disbursed RM1.6bil to 538,869 borrowers.