Interest blow to education loan beneficiaries

 Bengal government acts on complaints about education loan

Pranesh Sarkar   |   TT  |  Calcutta   |  22.04.23 : The Bengal government has received complaints that some of the beneficiaries of education loans secured through student credit cards (SCC) are being forced to pay an interest of nine per cent though the conditions say they need to repay the amounts at a rate of four per cent. 

The government started taking steps to solve the complaints which mostly came from Malda and South Dinajpur districts. The complaints were lodged with the state education department, the nodal agency of the SCC scheme. The matter was raised by the district inspectors concerned during a recent meeting.

“The matter has been forwarded to Nabanna for immediate action. This needs to be stopped as students are harassed after securing a loan under a flagship programme of the government,” said a senior government official.

Soon after receiving the complaints, the finance department asked the districts concerned to send detailed reports so that it could intervene at the earliest. Sources said the banks were asking some students to pay the interest at nine per cent because of technical problems in submitting proper claims. 

A senior finance department official said the government had an agreement with banks under the scheme.

“According to the agreement, the banks will charge four per cent interest from students for education loans, while the government will pay the remaining interest. Mostly, education loans have an interest rate of nine per cent and the government needs to pay five per cent interest under the SCC scheme. Initially, there was some problem as the banks were not submitting proper claims to the government. As a result, the government was facing a problem in paying five per cent interest to the banks,” said the official.

“But the problem was sorted out later. Now, it seems some banks in some districts are submitting proper claims and as a result, some students may be forced to pay a higher rate of interest. We will identify each case and take up the issue with the banks concerned so that the students don’t face any problems,” added the official.

According to sources, the government is looking into the issue with utmost sincerity for three reasons.

First, this is one of theflagship programmes which chief minister Mamata Banerjee had launched after retaining power in the 2021 Assembly polls. Now, if the scheme falters and the beneficiaries suffer, it can leave the government in an awkward situation.

Second, the government does not want to give any chance to the Opposition to raise questions over its pet schemes ahead of rural polls.

Third, if the students are charged higher interest, the families may face troubleto meet the additional expenditure. “For example, if a student has taken a loanof Rs 5 lakh for a 15-year tenure at nine per cent interest, he has to pay an EMI of Rs 5,071 every month. If the interest is four per cent, he will have to pay about Rs 3,698 every month. Most of the families cannot shoulder the additional expenditure,” said a senior official.

Sources in the education department said more than 25,000 students had secured loans under the SCC.