Times of India: Chennai: Sunday, September 24, 2017.
State Bank of
India has failed to remit more than Rs 534 crore, which it had received from
the Centre as interest subsidy for education loans, into the accounts of
eligible students for seven years -from 2009 to 2016.The subsidy paid to the
SBI by the Union ministry for human resources development (MHRD) did not reach
the education loan accounts of poor students, figures accessed by TOI through
an RTI response shows.
Under the
Central Sector Interest Subsidy (CSIS) scheme, students, with an annual family
income of less than `4.5 lakh, get full waiver on the interest component of
their education loan during the course period. Banks, which give the loan, have
to claim the subsidy from the MHRD through a portal maintained by Canara Bank.
In response
to an RTI application filed by TOI, SBI stated that they claimed `2,333.60
crore from the Centre as interest subsidy under the scheme. Of this,
only`1,799.31crore was deposited into the accounts of student, the RTI response
shows. The gap between what was claimed from the Centre and what was deposited
kept growing through the years.
In 2009-10,
SBI claimed `86.92 crore of which `7.95 crore was not deposited. In 2010-11, it
rose to Rs 20.06 crore, and for the year 2011 12 the unpaid subsidy was Rs
54.54 crore. The year 2012-13 saw the sum dip to Rs 51.74 crore, and in 2013-14
it rose phenomenally to Rs 101.94 crore. In 2014-14, it fell to Rs 17.12 crore,
only to rise to Rs 280.94 crore for the year 201516.
A separate
RTI response from Canara bank indicated that Rs 2,330 crore had been claimed by
SBI during this period. "If money has been claimed, it has to be deposited
in the student loan accounts," said a senior official from Canara bank,
who deals with the claims portal.
This directly
impacts poor students across the country , as they are forced to repay up to
40% extra of their loan amount. "We get a number of complaints of
shortpayment of interest subsidy , especially by SBI, on e-mail from
students," said K Srinivasan, a former banker, who runs the Education Loan
Task Force (ELTF), an organisation which aids students to resolve such issues
with bank.
Many have
complained to SBI that they are being forced to pay a higher loan amount
despite being eligible for sub sidy. Neelotpal Mishra (29), a resident of
Noida, took a loan from SBI Jhanjhar in Bihar in 2010 to fund his engineering
education. "Statement from Canara Bank showed I was eligible for Rs 2.86
lakh interest subsidy. But SBI deposited only Rs 66,000, that too two years
later. Now my loan repayment has shot up to Rs 6 lakh, whereas it should be
only Rs 4 lakhs. Bank managers are not responding to my complaints and
documents," he told TOI.
Srinivasan
said this was extremely poor mismanagement of loans by SBI. "Banks are
blaming students for poor repayment and selling the `bad' loans to Asset
Restructuring Companies (ARC) like Reliance. But the rightful money is not
being given to the students. If the money is excess claim, it should be returned
to the government," he said, calling for a high level enquiry .
In response
to a specific email questionnaire regarding the Rs 534 crore by this
correspondent, the assistant general manager (AGM), Personal Banking Business
Unit (PBBU) of SBI corporate office in Mumbai, said: " Any amount of
subsidy , as and when received from the government , is being credited to
respective accounts of the borrowers."
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