ARAU: The National Higher Education Fund Corporation (PTPTN) admits it is not able to afford delaying repayments of its loans for borrowers earning less than RM4,000 a month.
Its chairman Wan Saiful Wan Jan said the suggestion to delay repayments will have a negative impact on the institution in the long run.
"We appreciate the suggestion by all quarters for Pakatan Harapan (PH) to fulfill its election manifesto, however we are unable to fulfill this promise right now.
"We do not want its implementation (delaying repayments) to result in the government having to close down PTPTN in the coming years due to a high debt burden," he said when met at the 2018 Education Career carnival, here, today.
Yesterday, Pasir Gudang MP Hassan Abdul Karim in debating the 2019 Budget at the Dewan Rakyat urged the government to fulfill its promise of delaying PTPTN loan repayments.
Hassan was quoted as saying that the government should restructure PTPTN to help youths and graduates.
Commenting further on a new repayment mechanism, Wan Saiful said PTPTN was still waiting for approval from the Economic Affairs Ministry in order to implement the mechanism.
"I plead for the Economic Affairs Ministry to speed up the internal discussion process because we have been waiting for more than two months.
"As soon as they finalise a decision, we will bring this to the Cabinet where it will be decided if it can be implemented or otherwise," he said.