PTPTN pledge possible if not because of Jho Low: Lim
Published on: Monday, November 05, 2018
Selangor: The repayment deferment of the National Higher Education Fund Corporation (PTPTN) loan as promised by the Pakatan Harapan (PH) government is difficult to be implemented due to the country's current fiscal position, according to Finance Minister Lim Guan Eng (pic).While admitting that the Government was badly criticised after the announcement on the matter was made during the tabling of Budget 2019 last Friday, he said the Government really had no other choice."I accept the criticisms as we really want to implement it (the promise to allow deferment of PTPTN loan repayments), but it is hard to do it due to the current fiscal position.
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"What can we (government) do right now? If Jho Low had not taken away RM50 billion, maybe we can do it," he told reporters after the launch of FundMyHome.com, a digital platform which offers a similar scheme to the Crowdfunding Property solution, by Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad, here, Sunday.Prior to this, Education Minister Dr Maszlee Malik was reported as saying that the PH government would defer repayment of PTPTN loans for borrowers earning RM4,000 a month and below, in a bid to reduce the people's burden.However, when tabling Budget 2019 last Friday, Lim said repayment of loans would be ensured through scheduled deductions of between two and 15 per cent from the salary of debtors earning more than RM1,000.Meanwhile, Guan Eng assured Malaysians that the Government will only proceed with its peer-to-peer crowd-funding initiative to help them buy their first homes after all factors are considered.
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But the Finance Minister believes the novel money lending scheme, as announced in Budget 2019, is a risk worth taking as long as the Pakatan Harapan (PH) government fulfils its promise to deliver one million affordable homes next year.He added that Bank Negara Malaysia and the Securities Commission (SC) have conducted their own evaluations and have not objected to it.
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"But if we can, as Tun mentioned, fulfil and deliver that one million house promise, I think it's a risk worth taking," he told reporters, referring to Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad who had earlier launched the FundMyHome programme here.Lim said the Government had taken time to study the scheme before announcing it, and found it suitable for the Malaysian property market."So I would say that we would not be approving this until all factors are considered, but definitely we welcome the concerns."We got to go to the mechanics in the SC. The important part is the exchange platform. That is the critical point. So once that is done, everything else follows," Lim said.He said if the scheme was a success, it would raise the bar on large-scale home ownership.Lim welcomed the criticisms raised by the Home Buyers Association (HBA) on the peer-to-peer scheme, including the possibility of a mortgage crisis due to too-easy financial aid given."If the HBA is not concerned, and just taking two paragraphs from my statement, then there is something wrong with them," Lim said when asked to comment on the association's concern over bad debt.Stay up-to-date by following Daily Express’s Telegram channel.
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