KUALA LUMPUR: The National Higher Education Fund Corporation (PTPTN) will implement the Scheduled Salary Deductions (PGB) next year.
To facilitate this, it is working with six agencies to obtain information of income and details of employers of PTPTN borrowers, said its chairman Wan Saiful Wan Jai.
Once it has all the information, PTPTN would then be able to implement PGB on the borrowers whose salaries has reached RM2,000 a month, effective January next year.
According to him, the agencies are the Employers Provident Fund (EPF), Inland Revenue Board of Malaysia (LHDN), Retirement Fund Inc (KWAP), Accountant-General’s Department, Armed Forces Payroll Directorate and Public Service Department (JPA).
“Based on the information obtained, PTPTN will issue directives for salary deductions depending on the percentages of deductions, and it is their duty to implement the workers’ pay cuts as loan repayments to PTPTN,” he told reporters here yesterday.
Wan Saiful said PGB would greatly benefit those with low income and the young who had just started working and this method was fairer because it would ensure that the less well-to-do were not burdened, while the rich could not take advantage.
Wan Saiful also detailed out the percentage of deductions depending on the income of the borrowers namely, RM2,000 until RM2,499.99, the borrowers must pay two per cent of the loan, or RM40 to RM49.99; and for income of RM2,500 to RM2,999.99 (three percent or RM75 to RM89.99).
For those earning RM3,000 to RM3,999.99 (five per cent – RM150 to RM199.99), RM4,000 to RM5,999.99 (eight per cent – RM320 to RM479.99), RM6,000 to RM7,999.99 (10 per cent – RM600 until RM799.99) and those earning RM8,000 upwards must pay 15 per cent of the loan or RM1,200 and upwards).
At the tabling of the Budget 2019, Finance Minister Lim Guan Eng announced the implementation of the PGB of between two and 15 per cent from the monthly income of the borrowers who are earning more than RM1,000 a month, other than exemption of repayment for the B40 group if a graduate obtained Bachelor Degree First Class.
However, last week Education Minister Dr Maszlee Malik said the deduction of salaries for borrowers with incomes exceeding RM2,000 a month would be implemented from January 2019.
Maszlee also announced that the government had decided that an exemption of repayment for borrowers who obtained a first class result would also be expanded to middle-class households (M40). – Bernama
