SENATE A total of 1,574,700 borrowers who failed to repay their National Higher Education Fund Corporation (PTPTN) loans, totalling RM32.07 billion, have been listed in the Central Credit Reference Information System (CCRIS) as of Nov 10.

Deputy Higher Education Minister Mary Yap Kain Ching said CCRIS was not a mechanism for PTPTN to blacklist the hardcore borrowers as claimed by certain quarters.

“The record in the CCRIS serves as the best practice for all financial institutions to ensure that the borrowers repay (their) loans accordingly,” she said at the Dewan Negara sitting in Kuala Lumpur today.

She was replying to a question by Senator Ng Chiang Chin on the discount offered in the 2017 Budget and the latest number of loans given out by PTPTN.

Yap also said PTPTN had issued loans to 2.6 million borrowers until the end of their studies, involving an allocation of RM59.67 billion as of November.

“PTPTN has collected RM10.07 billion from 1.2 million borrowers compared to RM18.84 billion which was supposed to be collected from 1.9 million borrowers during the corresponding period,” she added.

- Bernama