REPAYMENTS for National Higher Education Fund Corporation (PTPTN) loans will begin only when borrowers’ salary hits RM2,000, said Deputy Education Minister Teo Nie Cheng.

“The cabinet, on November 23, decided that 2% will be deducted from borrowers’ salary once it reaches RM2,000.

“The deductions will be done progressively, till a maximum rate of 15%,” she told the Dewan Rakyat today.

Employers will be mandated to make the deductions, and remit the funds to PTPTN.

This is Pakatan Harapan’s second revision of the PTPTN repayment policy. In the pact’s manifesto, it had promised that repayments would begin only when borrowers’ salary reached RM4,000.

The salary level was then revised to RM1,000 on November 2, during the tabling of Budget 2019.

Last week, students protested against the decision, saying PH had failed to keep its election promise.

Teo said the repayment exemption for first-class honours students will be extended to those in the M40, or middle 40% of households, category.

“We hope that T20 students who obtain first-class honours will continue repaying their PTPTN loans,” she said, referring to the top 20% of households category.

Of the students with excellent results who are exempted from repaying their loans, 37,355 are from public institutions of higher learning and 15,758 from private institutions.

For the June-September period this year, the government collected RM817.7 million in PTPTN loan repayments. – November 27, 2018.