BR1M recipients' children will get full PTPTN loans

Children of Bantuan Rakyat 1Malaysia (BR1M) recipients can receive a full loan from the National Higher Education Fund (PTPTN), the fund chairperson Shamsul Anuar Nasarah said today.

Shamsul Anuar said for non-BR1M recipients who have a maximum income of RM8,000 a month will get 75 per cent financing.

“Parents who gets more than RM8,000 a month, their children can receive 50 per cent of financing,” he said.

Shamsul Anuar said the number of PTPTN recipients had seen a decline over the years following the non-repayment of the loans.

He said that it needs RM5 billion annual allocation to pay the tuition and living costs of students.

Since its formation in 1997, it had given out RM2.1 million loans to students to a total amount of RM48.36 billion.

“Up to Sept 30 this year, the fund received RM447.01 million compared to a target of RM850 million.

“The whole amount received from 1997 to Sept 30, 2014 is RM5.41 billion which only accounts for 45.18 per cent from 996,610 former students who had taken the loan,” said Shamsul Anuar.

He also said a total of 558,475 students have not paid their loans at all involving RM4.3 billion.

He adds that the proposed listing on Central Credit Reference Information System (CCRIS) in Jan 2015, would be made in stages where 173,985 of them would be the first batch.

He said that these are people who took loans but have not paid any amount for more than three years.

“This move is to encourage the students to be disciplined to re-pay their loans,” he said, adding that failure to do so would affect their credit worthiness.