No salary deductions until Act is amended

GEORGE TOWN: The National Higher Education Fund Corporation (PTPTN) Act will have to be amended before employers can deduct the salaries of PTPTN borrowers.

Human Resources Minister M. Kulasegaran said salaries of employees who are also PTPTN borrowers cannot be deducted until amendments are made to the Act.

“There is no law to allow such salary deductions without the consent of employees,” Kulasegaran told newsmen after opening the 7th Employment Law Forum 2018 yesterday.

PTPTN chairman Wan Saiful Wan Jan said on Wednesday that borrowers earning more than RM2,000 a month would no longer be able to avoid payment once the automatic salary deduction kicks in next month. He said PTPTN would issue a directive to employers to carry out the deductions according to the percentages set in the repayment scheme.

However, Malaysian Trade Union Congress president Datuk Abdul Halim Mansor said that PTPTN could not make such salary deductions without the borrower’s consent according to Employment Act 1955.

Kulasegaran said the deduction was minimal, and borrowers should pay as the economic situation was not healthy at present.

It was reported earlier that the amount owed by PTPTN borrowers to date totalled almost RM40bil.

Pakatan Harapan, in its general election manifesto, had promised to defer repayment of PTPTN loans for borrowers earning RM4,000 a month and below but shortly after taking over the government, it found that the level of debt was too high to fulfil its promise.