PTPTN: Employers have no right to deduct salaries — Kula

GEORGE TOWN: Employers have no right to directly deduct loan repayments from the salaries of their staff who are the PTPTN (National Higher Education Fund Corporation) borrowers without their (employees) consent.

Human Resources Minister, M. Kula Segaran said this was because there was currently no provision in the law to permit employers to do so.

“There is no provision to authorise PTPTN...so what can be done is to amend the PTPTN Act first by providing that outstanding payments be deducted from parties that are authorised to do so,” he said.

“If there is an Act granting permission to the government or to PTPTN to make salary deductions at source, then nobody can question. The employers must also be involved,” he told reporters after attending the 7th Employment Law Forum, here yesterday.

He said this when commenting on PTPTN chairman Wan Saiful Wan Jan’s statement on Wednesday that the corporation was working with six agencies to get income information and details of the employers of PTPTN borrowers in order to implement Scheduled Salary Deduction (PGB) from January.

Wan Saiful said PGB was for PTPTN borrowers whose salaries reached RM2,000 per month and based on the information obtained, the corporation would issue instructions on the salary deduction according to a specific percentage to the employer. The onus was on the employer to make the deduction.

Asked whether the government would amend the PTPTN Act, Kulasegaran said the matter was outside the jurisdiction of his ministry.

Commenting on the complaints of borrowers who described the method as a burden to them, he said the country was now facing financial problems and all parties had to play their part in helping out. - Bernama