PTPTN receives 60% or less of repayments every month

KUALA LUMPUR (Bernama): The National Higher Education Fund Corporation (PTPTN) has received RM558.9mil in repayments in from January to March 2019.

PTPTN public relations and management council senior general manager, Abdul Ghaffar Yusof, said the body should be receiving RM300mil in repayments every month, but was only receiving between RM150mil and RM180mil.

"The status of payments so far is still below the actual level. The total amount collected should have been RM4bil for the whole of last year. We need to lend to new and existing students.

"There are no issues with borrowers who pay through salary deductions, but there are still those who have not made any payment," he told reporters after the prize presentation for the PTPTN Debt

Free Competition 2018/2019 here on Wednesday (May 29).

Earlier in his speech, Abdul Ghaffar said as of April, the amount outstanding from 350,000 defaulters stood at RM6.5bil and this created an increasingly financial shortage every year.

He said as of April also, PTPTN had approved loans to more than three million borrowers with a total amount of RM56bil.

"This amount is increasing every year and PTPTN needs to have huge funds in the sum of RM4bil per year to ensure that all future students can enjoy PTPTN loans.

"However, the amount of repayments received is only 58% out of total loan that should be collected," he added.

Meanwhile, a former student of Universiti Tunku Abdul Rahman (UTAR), Looi Pek Chuan, won the PTPTN Debt Free Competition organised by YouthsToday.com, with a prize of RM33,709.19 for settling a loan from the agency.

Looi, from Pulau Pangkor, Perak, made 10,974 transactions via the GoPay app for the contest.

YouthsToday.com chief executive officer Jazz Tan said the competition was open to PTPTN borrowers, who made the highest transactions in terms of payment of various bills, postpaid and monthly utility payments via the GoPay app. – Bernama