FINANCE Minister Winston Jordan on Monday expressed satisfaction with the number of persons who are taking advantage of the reduction in interest rates for borrowers of student loans.Just over a week ago, the Finance Minister announced that there would be a reduction in interest rates for defaulters who enter into an arrangement with the Student Loan Agency to repay outstanding sums by the end of August and September.

Calling it a “Jubilee offer”, the minister said borrowers could benefit from a 75 per cent reduction in accumulated arrears of interest if borrowers pay off outstanding sums by August 31. If, however, borrowers are unable to repay by August 31, they can still benefit from a 50 per cent reduction in accumulated arrears of interest if they bring their accounts up-to-date by September 30 of this year.

Minister Jordan disclosed that, as of August 5, some 42 persons had benefited from the 75 per cent rebate. Those persons would have paid $19.9M and would have benefited from $9.3M in interest rebate.

“It seems to be generous,” said the Finance Minister, who noted that in the case of the 50 per cent rebate, only two persons had taken up the offer. Those two persons paid $134,000 to the Student Loan Agency and benefited from a rebate of $129,000.

“I am pleased with responses in terms of reactions of people calling in, finding out balances, and how they can make payments,” he disclosed.

The Finance Minister also disclosed the monthly installments that would have to be paid by the various categories of students at the University of Guyana (UG). For those whose programmes cost $127,000 per year, the minister said a person completing a four-year degree programme will have to pay $5,684 per month for the next 15 years.

A person who studied law would have to pay $7,868 per month for 15 years; while a person who does law with pre-law will pay $9,335 per month.

He said the monthly installment for those who studied medicine would be much more than for other programmes. Those who did “a straight medicine degree” would have to repay $21,885 per month for 15 years, while a person who did pre-medicine and medicine will have to repay $23,387 per month for the same period.

“Those are the facts in front of us when it comes to the issue of repayment,” Minister Jordan said, while stressing that “every student borrower has a moral obligation to repay what was borrowed”.

“There is no argument, in my book, of you borrowing money and not paying it back…I had people tell me to my face they will not pay back any. We would have to take them to court,” the minister stated.

The Finance Ministry is looking at ways to make the repayment of money borrowed easier for both local and overseas borrowers. That Ministry’s Public Relations Officer, Wanita Huburn, disclosed that the use of Mobile Money, Bill Express and Western Union are to be methods employed to make the repayment process easier.

She said the Ministry is also examining the use of a PayPal System for the transfer of funds from foreign territories to local banks.

Notwithstanding the aforementioned progress, Minister Jordan sought to clear the air on the possible restriction of those who have failed to repay their student loans. He told reporters at a press briefing at his office that he and his colleagues in Cabinet were well aware that implementing such a ban without a Court Order is illegal. He said that was not the intention of the Government.

“Everybody was aware…the whole Cabinet was aware that stopping people without Court Order and these kinds of things was illegal, so to speak. So the proposition that was put up by the committee that was formed by Cabinet to look into all aspects of how to improve collection came up with the idea…that perhaps what we would do is put the database there [at ports of exit) and we will put a desk where somebody could make an arrangement… never with any intention of stopping anybody…,” Jordan explained.

That move, the minister said, would at the very least facilitate persons beginning the process.

“The point here is…we are not asking people to pay off their loans if you are not current. Secondly, the database will not include people who are current… This was the intent, but it is now off the table,” he added.