KUALA LUMPUR: Maszlee Malik (pix) said he was unaware of claims that the ministry is considering reintroducing a travel ban on National Higher Education Fund Corporation (PTPTN) loan defaulters.
The Education Minister expressed shock when asked to comment on media reports quoting PTPTN chairman Wan Saiful Wan Jan that the fund is looking at imposing a travel ban as one of the options to address the issue of outstanding loans.
“Which media reported that? I need to ask Wan Saiful first about this,” he told a press conference in parliament, here, today.
When pressed further if the ministry would consider making such a move, he declined to comment, saying he needed to get clarification from Wan Saiful first.
Wan Saiful had last week said PTPTN was considering reintroducing the travel ban on defaulters, before claiming that his statement was misunderstood.
He later clarified that the proposal for a travel ban was merely a suggestion and feedback the education fund received from stakeholders but maintained that there are currently no such plans.
Maszlee had on May 31, 2018, following Pakatan Harapan’s (PH) election victory, announced that the names of about 433,000 loan defaulters would be taken out of the no-fly list.
All the names were later lifted from travel ban by mid-June.
PH had in its election manifesto promised to remove all PTPTN defaulters from the ban, besides pledging to postpone payment for borrowers earning less than RM4,000 monthly.
