KUALA LUMPUR, MAY 29 — The amount of loan repayments received by the National Higher Education Fund Corporation (PTPTN) from January to March this year was RM558.9 million, according to PTPTN.

Its public relations and management council senior general manager, Abdul Ghaffar Yusof, said the amount of repayments should be RM300 million per month but the average amount received was between RM150 million and RM180 million. 

"The status of payments so far is still below the actual level. The total amount collected should have been RM4 billion for the whole of last year because we need to lend to new and existing students.

“There are no issues with borrowers who pay through salary deductions but there are still borrowers who have not made any payment,” he told reporters after the prize presentation for the PTPTN Debt Free Competition 2018/2019 here today.

Earlier in his speech, Abdul Ghaffar said as of April, the amount outstanding from 350,000 defaulters stood at RM6.5 billion 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 RM56 billion.

“This amount is increasing every year and PTPTN needs to have huge funds in the sum of RM4 billion per year to ensure that all future students can enjoy PTPTN loans.

“However, the amount of repayments received is only 58 percent 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