SELFISH defaulters denying others of loan facility - PTPTN chief

As such, PTPTN chairman Datuk Shamsul Anuar Nasarah has urged the 400,000 hardcore loan defaulters to pay up as soon as possible to enable more deserving students to obtain study loans.

He said the 400,000 defaulters owed PTPTN about RM2.3 billion in total.

The defaulters, he added, dated as far back as 16 years ago, when the PTPTN was first introduced.

"This (the amount owed to us) is a huge amount.

"If our collection is reduced, in this case, for every RM300 million owed to PTPTN, at least 15,000 are denied the opportunity to take study loans.

"Just imagine if many of them do not pay up ... many others, who really need the study loans, do not get to enjoy the loan facility," he told reporters at the Lenggong parliamentary constituency Hari Raya open house here today.

It was previously reported that despite a plethora of repayment options, more than 400,000 former students had yet to settle their PTPTN education loans.

A simple calculation showed that if RM2.4 million is owed to PTPTN, some 120,000 people are denied the opportunity to enjoy the loan facility.

Meanwhile, Shamsul, who recently assumed the chairmanship, said PTPTN disbursed loans totaling RM50.52 billion to some 2.24 million borrowers nationwide until July this year.

Of the total, RM5.4 billion was disbursed to 238,065 borrowers in Perak alone.

During the same period, PTPTN also managed to collect back RM4.32 billion from 880,595 borrowers.

"We do not want a situation where deserving students failed to enter institutions of higher learning due to financial constraints, especially failure to obtain loans.

"As it is, we are helping some 200,000 students every year, and we hope to increase the amount in future," he added.

Earlier, Shamsul said that PTPTN was undergoing a transformation of image to "bring PTPTN closer to the people".

"We want to give PTPTN a new image since it had been riddled with numerous controversies before this.

"We want to have a good relationship with the people so that they do not simply believe any allegations hurled at PTPTN previously," he added.

- New Straits Times