Felda claims it is confident of settling the RM6 billion loan it took from the Employees Provident Fund on schedule, its chairman, Mohd Isa Abdul Samad, said today.    

He said that Felda would repay the loan in instalments according to schedule.    

"The (EPF) are confident that we are capable of paying back the loan," he told reporters after meeting Terengganu Felda scheme leaders.    

Mohd Isa said that almost RM3 billion of the loan taken recently had been allocated for crop replanting. 

Gov't: 42mil wang ehsan distributed

Meanwhile in Kelantan, the federal government has distributed RM42.2 million to students in the state since the "wang ehsan" (compassionate funds) programme was launched in November last year.      

Minister of International Trade and Industry Mustapa Mohamed said today that the money was given to 9,000 excellent students and 2,800 others who had been accepted in public institutions of higher learning.     

"We never took a sen and the term 'oil royalty' never existed in the state," he told reporters after presenting wang ehsan to top students of 2010.     

On November last year, Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak announced that Kelantan would received wang ehsan from the federal government derived from the offshore oil outside the state territory.

Mustapa, who is also the State Economic Action Council chairman, said the federal government was giving the money out of compassion for the people of Kelantan.     

He said the government was giving RM100, RM150 and RM200 to top UPSR, PMR and SPM students respectively. Those accepted in public institutions of higher learning received RM800 each.  

- Bernama