A total of 662,000 National Higher Education Fund Corporation (PTPTN) borrowers are facing serious financial problems and unable to repay their loans.

PTPTN Chairman Datuk Shamsul Anuar Nasarah said such borrowers can approach the Credit Counselling and Debt Management Agency (AKPK) to restructure their loan repayments, or face the music.

He said AKPK was a strategy to help borrowers make their loan repayments based on their financial capability.

“PTPTN will continue to be customer friendly and there is no problem to meet us but we have no other choice than to take enforcement action just like the practice of other financial institutions," he said after signing the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with AKPK at its office, here, yesterday.

Since 1997 until Dec 31 last year, PTPTN had approved loans to more than 2.4 million students in institutions of higher learning, involving an allocation of RM55.5 billion.

Until the end of last year, PTPTN collected RM7.1 billion in loan repayment from 1.2 million borrowers out of the total RM15.3 billion which it was supposed to collect.