PTPTN Defaulters Listed under CCRIS

Since its inception in Year 1997, National Higher Education Fund Corporation (PTPTN) has approved loans for 2.17 million students, of which 17387 had been exempted from repaying their loans for having graduated with first class honours. However, it was reported in July that 418094 people had yet to repay their PTPTN loans worth RM 2.8bil.

PTPTN has taken actions on the defaulters by publishing the names of defaulters in the newspapers and barring them from leaving the country because they ignored repeated reminders to repay their loans for more than five years. On 20th August 2013, Second Education Minister Datuk Seri Idris Jusoh said that PTPTN would work together with Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM) to include the names of defaulters on the CCRIS.

After 2 days, on 22nd August 2013, the government announced that the proposal has been put on hold due to an almost unified opposition response from the people. PTPTN will adopt a ‘wait and see’ approach to study the real problem behind the long list of defaulters and everyone is welcomed to give their feedback to PTPTN on ways to help defaulters repay their loans.

The impact of listing the names of defaulters on CCRIS is that it will be very difficult for them to apply for credit cards, personal loans, car loans and housing loans. This is because their installment on CCRIS is in arrears (debt overdue). If they can't borrow from financial institutions, they might end up borrowing from loan sharks. This will create even more social problems.

To ensure the sustainability of PTPTN and also no one will be jeopardised in any measures going to be implemented, the government should carefully study the reasons behind the failure of borrowers to repay their loans first then only take the necessary action.