KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 20 — Putrajaya said today it will heed the views the opposition raised against its plan to list PTPTN defaulters on Bank Negara’s Credit Bureau database.
Education Minister II Datuk Seri Idris Jusoh (picture), however, insisted that the plan was done in goodwill and that no students will be “victimised” should the system be implemented.
“We will ensure nobody will be victimised. The intention is good and we will make sure everyone’s view is heard,” he told The Malay Mail Online after chairing a student council meeting at the Putra World Trade Centre here.
Earlier today, the opposition and Malay rights group Perkasa criticised the proposal.
PKR strategy director Rafizi Ramli and the DAP’s Steven Sim Chee Keong said listing defaulters on the Central Credit Reference Information System (CCRIS) would likely hamper their future plans to take out loans for important matters like house or car purchases.
Malay supremacy group Perkasa’s secretary-general Syed Hassan Syed Ali was reported to have said the move would punish Malay and Bumiputera students.
He argued that it would shut out Malays from venturing into the entrepreneurship sector as they would face difficulties in obtaining loans.
Both Perkasa and the opposition plan to launch a protest against the move.
“We’ll make sure we listen to the people and see how the implementation is going to get done... in fact nobody is going to feel bad about it,” Idris said when asked to respond to the criticism.
Idris was reported to have said yesterday that the National Higher Education Fund Corporation (PTPTN) has been collaborating with Bank Negara to list defaulters on the CCRIS from the start of August.
The CCRIS is where information on borrowers to the Credit Bureau is stored.
Credit data from financial institutions are automatically kept and processed in the CCRIS and subsequently synthesised into credit reports, which will in turn be made available to institutions upon request.
An individual with a bad credit report would automatically face trouble when applying for future loans with these institutions.
Idris explained that the move to list PTPTN defaulters on the CCRIS was to recover monies from scholars who were “adamant” not to repay the fund.
But he said those who are unable to pay could still discuss alternative payment plans with PTPTN in order to exclude their names from the CCRIS.
He added that those unable to repay their loan could discuss their payment plan with PTPTN to come up with a new repayment schedule.
Rafizi, one of the key drivers behind PR’s pre-election pledge to make varsity education free, said this move would not work.
“Before this, PTPTN decided to place defaulters on an immigration blacklist to block them from leaving the country.
“This threat did not even help improve the fund’s financial position in terms of loan collection... so I am confident that listing defaulters on the CCRIS would not be effective as well,” he said.
Sim said he will seek Youth and Sports Minister Khairy Jamaluddin’s aid to put a halt to the CCRIS listing plan, adding that the government was acting hastily by punishing the students first without addressing the root cause of the problem.
The root cause, said the Bukit Mertajam MP, is oftentimes the low income of many households and a tertiary education industry that allegedly values profits over quality.
“In this situation, youths have no choice and are forced to be debtors at a young age through PTPTN loans to pay for their higher education in a gloomy household finance situation,” Sim said.
He frowned on the move as a simplistic and hasty measure to address the PTPTN loan default problem without giving thought to the hardship of the people, saying that the government appeared to be acting like an “Ah Long” (loan shark) by pressuring graduates to repay.
The number of people who had yet to repay their PTPTN loans stood at 418,094 graduates, with outstanding debts of RM2.8 billion, according to a report in local daily The Star earlier today.
