Centre refixes education loan ceiling at Rs 7.5 lakh

Speed Post News Network

New Delhi : The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs under the Chairmanship of Prime Minister Narendra Modi has given its approval for continuation of Credit Guarantee Fund for Education Loans Scheme and continuation and modification of Central Sector Interest Subsidy Scheme with a financial outlay of Rs 6,600 crore for period from 2017-18 to 2019-20. This will provide education loans to 10 lakh students during this period.

In order to allow more students to access the benefit and also considering that the average loan size has been only Rs 4 lakh, the ceiling on the loan amount has been refixed at Rs 7.5 lakh, according to a PIB release. The moratorium period would be course period + 1 year.

To promote quality education, the scheme would cover loans for pursuing professional / technical courses from NAAC / NBA accredited Institutions/programmes or Institutions of National Importance or Central Funded Technical Institutions (CFTIs). This condition would, however, be applicable with prospective effect and would not apply to the current loans. A dashboard would be put in place for better monitoring of the scheme.

As against the scheme running since 2009, in which average educational loans per year were only 2.78 lakh, under the revised scheme, the number of loans per year are expected to be at least 3.3 lakh.