Civil servants 'must repay student loans'

These civil servants will have to declare their intention to make monthly repayments from their salary accounts by next Monday, or the SLF will raise their cases directly with their current employers. 

“Many agencies have already signed an agreement to collect payments on our behalf,” SLF manager Thitima Vichairatana said yesterday. 

Among the employers are the Comptroller General’s Department, the University of Phayao and Naresuan University. 

Thitima added that the SLF was also preparing to sign similar agreements with about 100 other employers in a bid to collect unpaid debts. 

About 4.5 million people have so far sought student loans. Of them, about 2 million have either defaulted or fallen behind their repayment schedules. Together, their combined debts to the SLF are about Bt56 billion. 

More than 60,000 civil servants are among these debtors. 

SLF chairman Somchai Sujja-pongs, who is also the permanent secretary for Finance, said yesterday that he had received reports that about 1,000 defaulters worked at the Finance Ministry.

“I want to ensure that none of the ministry’s officials will be defaulters,” he said. 

He said civil servants who had agreed to have their salaries deducted to facilitate repayments to the SLF by February 15 would start monthly repayments before the end of September. 

Somchai also disclosed that the Finance Ministry was in the process of passing a new law that would require employers to deduct |the salaries of employees for repayment.

“The monthly repayments can be made via the Revenue Department,” he said. 

Thitima said separately she expected this new law to allow the SLF to also disclose debtors’ information. 

“The draft of this law will be presented to the Cabinet soon and we expect to it take effect by 2019,” she said. Pending the new legislation, the SLF has already taken several measures to collect debt. It has made it more convenient for debtors to repay their debts, for example, by increasing the number of repayment channels. Since 2014, SLF debtors can make repayments via post offices and since last year they can also repay via Counter Service outlets.

Tougher measures have also been taken. For example, the SLF has already sent out notification letters, dunning letters and hired a debt-collecting company. 

The company was responsible for securing Bt800 million in repayments in 2014 and Bt1.7 billion in 2015.

“In addition, we will seek cooperation from all government a|gencies and state enterprises in helping us collect the debts,” Somchai said. 

He said the SLF would also ask for cooperation from the private sector.

SLF debt collection has improved in recent years, Somchai said. In 2013, the fund was able to collect Bt11 billion. The following year, it collected Bt13 billion and last year, it recouped as much as Bt17 billion. 

“This year, the SLF aims to collect Bt19 billion,” he said. 

At the same time, the SLF plans to provide loans to 670,000 students this year. Of that number, about 200,000 will be new loan recipients. 

 

 

Tackling bad debts