DESPITE having a stable job for several years, Mohamad Shahril, 30, confesses that he never once considered repaying the loan he took from the National Higher Learning Fund (PTPTN) during his university days.
That was until he encountered problems securing a bank loan in 2017 and realised that he could not travel abroad for work as he was placed on an immigration blacklist as a defaulter.
“I never repaid the loan for the first five years (after graduating). Initially, it was because I was not stable in my work but after a while, I just grew complacent.
“But I began repaying early last year when I encountered difficulties securing a bank loan. So whether or not I wanted to, I had to find a way to begin the repayment,” he told The Malaysian Insight.
Initially, Mohamad said it was difficult to juggle the repayment schedule but more than a year later, he said that he was glad to have been “forced” to bear his responsibility.
“Once you follow the repayment plan, we’re not only free but I feel that my wages are now legit,” the technician told The Malaysian Insight.
Mohamad is one of a million PTPTN defaulters banned from overseas travel since the education fund introduced the immigration blacklist in 2000.
As of 2018, a total of 655,000 borrowers were removed from the list after they started making repayments.
After Pakatan Harapan (PH) took over the government following the 14th general election, the remaining 433,000 defaulters were removed from the blacklist.
However, one year on, PTPTN is considering reintroducing the ban after considering the fund’s hefty RM40 billion debt, which could possible balloon to RM76 billion in the next 20 years.
Wan Saiful Wan Jan, PTPTN’s chairman, revealed that one out of every five loan borrowers has never made a single repayment, while 32% have not made consistent repayments.
Nurainn “Ain” Azhar, 34, said cancelling the immigration blacklist was an unwise move to begin with, as it sent the message that defaulters did not have to bear any consequence for their actions.
“I think it’s unfair to those who had suffered a ban in the past and also to those who have paid up consistently,” she said.
Ain said PTPTN should come down hard on defaulters who must have a sense of responsibility to repay their debts so that other students could have the opportunity to obtain a loan.
“No matter how tight (financially) you are, a loan is something that one must clear.
“Those who have never even made one repayment must be more responsible because this will affect others,” said the full-time tuition teacher.
For Nur Hidayah Hamid, 34, the shock of finding out that she had been banned from travel “forced” her to begin her repayments, which she has continued for the last two years.
“Two years ago, I used my second account from EPF (to repay) because my name was blacklisted and I couldn’t travel abroad. At that time, I was supposed to go with my family for a holiday, but I was banned.
“So I began repaying my loan and have consistently paid until now,” said Nur Hidayah, who works as an insurance agent.
The suggestion to reintroduce the travel ban for defaulters came from a list of 10 recommendations from PTPTN’s public consultation paper, which was compiled from meet-the-people sessions held nationwide.
Among other suggestions are stronger penalties, including a ban on the renewal of passports, driver’s licence and road tax.
THE MALAYSIAN INSIGHT
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