Quoting from the Star:, Saturday 12th April 2008:
“AFTER trying just about everything to recover payments for study loans and still not making any headway, the Public Service Department has come up with a last-gasp measure – to put defaulters on the credit-rating blacklist to bar them from getting any more loans.
“The PSD has consulted legal experts and has been given the go-ahead to implement the plan.
“In the past, the department and other agencies had embarked on measures which included:
- Deducting the salaries of its own employees who had defaulted in repaying the loans.
- The Higher Education Ministry tabled a Bill in Parliament last year to allow it to seize passports of loan defaulters who tried to escape overseas.
- It was also announced last year that hardcore study loan defaulters serving in the civil service would not be considered for promotions. This meant that those blacklisted by the PSD, National Higher Education Fund Corp (PTPTN), MARA and other government-linked corporations would not be promoted until they settled their loans.
- The names of study loan defaulters to be forwarded to the Attorney-General’s Chambers so that legal action can be taken against them.
- PSD decided to revoke the 75% discount given to 1,200 hardcore defaulters and blacklist them as well as their spouses and children (if any) so that they would not enjoy a similar loan facility in future.”
Why is this article here? I’ve paid of all my dues, so I can comment without shame. If you are considering a career in engineering, make when looking at a renumeration figure that you count in the amount you owe during your student times (I was paying 4 figures back monthly at one time), or be good at avoiding the various legal issues that can crop up.
If it was me, I would also consider the following options on defaulters:
- Declare defaulters as bankrupt: stops you from starting a business.
- Consider commercial debt collectors: hey, if you can pay federeal / local government bills using Visa/Mastercard, why not use your local friendly repo man.
- Prevent registration as Professional Engineers: yeah, that’s a real scary thing. Though, it does stop aspiring engineers from forming their own engineering companies.
- Practice garnishment of employees’ pay in the private sector: I can see the hate mailing just piling up.
- Instead of giving money directly from the Government coffers, how about getting the money from commercial banks, and having the Government paying the interest / profit on these loans? That way, when the loan is due, the full force of commercialism will hit the loanee?
Wata - Malaysian Oil and Gas Engineer 
Jabba reckons stopping people from registering as Professional Engineer (Ir) is not scary.
Making it mandatory to become PE is even scarier, because it will take forever to register…..
Instead donate to Wata’s blog….. (sorry, I can’t help laughing.. ahahahahaaaaaa)
Masa nk pinjam bukan main.. konon nak jd Dr., lautan api direnang sanggup..