Education loan sop to clean bank books, boost higher studies

State Bank of India, which has over Rs 9,000 crore in its education loan book, today said the four-year moratorium on education loans announced in the Interim Budget will help banks regularise their loan accounts.
"The Finance Minister's announcement augurs well for banks to regularise educational loan accounts which went irregular due to loss of growth momentum in the economy and decline in job opportunities," SBI Chief Economic Adviser Soumya Kanti Ghosh said.
Consulting firm Deloitte India said the moratorium on education loans taken up to March 2009 and outstanding as of end December 2013 will help a lot of students in realising their dreams for higher education.

"This hopefully should encourage our students to fulfil their academic ambitions by utilising educational loans and in the process enable the country to improve its gross enrollment ratio in higher education," Deloitte Haskins & Sells Partner K R Sekar said.
In the Budget, the Minister proposed a moratorium period for all education loans taken up to March 31, 2009 and outstanding as of December 31 2013.
The government will take over the liability for outstanding interest as on December 2013, but the borrower will have to pay interest for the period after January 1, 2014. The Centre will provide a sum of Rs 2,600 crore in the current financial year itself towards the proposal.

The move is likely to benefit 9 lakh student-borrowers to the tune of Rs 2,600 crore in the moratorium period.