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LATEST NEWS UPDATES | Govt plans credit guarantee fund for education loans-Prashant K Nanda & Remya Nair

Govt plans credit guarantee fund for education loans-Prashant K Nanda & Remya Nair

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published Published on Jun 7, 2012   modified Modified on Jun 7, 2012

India is setting up a Rs.5,000 crore credit guarantee fund to facilitate easy education loans to needy students by providing protection against defaults to banks.

The move was endorsed at a meeting of the Central Advisory Board on Education (CABE), the highest education advisory body to the government that comprises academicians, industry experts and state education ministers, human resource development (HRD) minister Kapil Sibal told reporters Wednesday.

“CABE members endorsed the initiative to create the fund to ensure better flow of credit to deserving students. It will be worth Rs.5,000 crore,” Sibal said.

The move comes after finance minister Pranab Mukherjee mentioned such an initiative in his March budget speech. Both HRD and finance ministries have discussed the measure once and further talks are going to take place soon to finalize “structural issues and final modalities”.

According to the HRD ministry, banks will give 1% of the loan amount to the fund and if a student defaults, the fund will ensure that 75% of the loan amount is returned. “Besides, once this is in place, we need not require any collateral security for availing loans up to Rs.750,000.” Currently, it’s Rs.4 lakh for students whose family income is less than Rs.4.5 lakh per year.

A finance ministry official said that given the fiscal constraints, a 1% contribution from banks to build up the corpus may not be sufficient. “It will mean more sponsorship from central government,” said a finance ministry official requesting anonymity. “During the finalization of the modalities, we hope to solve these issues.”

In 2011-12, India had a fiscal deficit of 5.76% of gross domestic product (GDP) and aims to reduce this to 5.1% in the current fiscal.

Several banks under the umbrella of the Indian Banks’ Association (IBA) started education loan schemes in 2001. The risky nature of educational loans has made banks wary of approving such loans though.

R.P. Sisodia, joint secretary with the HRD ministry, told CABE that banks are worried about non-performing assets (NPAs) rising. Hence, only 3% of Indian students pursuing higher education have availed education loans in the country. The HRD ministry did not give any specific time limit for implementing the scheme.

An IBA official who is part of the discussion said the Rs.5,000 crore corpus will be built over a period of time.

“The government will start with an initial corpus of Rs.1,000 crore, which will guarantee loans five times that amount. So, for the first year, around Rs.5,000 crore of education loans will get a credit guarantee,” he said, requesting anonymity. The government will subsequently release Rs.1,000 crore every year to build the corpus, he said.

“However, a cabinet note has not been finalized. It is possible that banks may be expected to contribute to the corpus of the fund along with the central government since the 1% fee will only cover the administrative expenses of the fund,” he added.

Bankers questioned the benefits of such a fund if banks have to contribute towards the corpus. “Where is the question of risk mitigation then,” said a banker with a Delhi-based public sector bank, who declined to be named.

While Sibal said banks need to provide education loans at lower rates of interest than those prevailing as education is a priority sector, some authorities don’t feel this will necessarily act as a roadblock during discussions.

The HRD ministry believes the interest subvention scheme of the central government takes care of the interest on such loans for poor students and banks should feel secured over this.

Live Mint, 7 June, 2012, http://www.livemint.com/2012/06/06221757/Govt-plans-credit-guarantee-fu.html?atype=tp


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