Interest on moratorium: Normally a moratorium period of one year is given to students after which their repayment period begins. The proposal from the Government ideated that if the total loan amount is taken for seven years of which two years are the academic period and one year moratorium period then government would be bearing interest for these three years. This would come as a major benefit to students and they would be able to save a fairly big amount of money. Repayment period: The HRD ministry had also suggested extending the loan repayment period from the existing period of 5-7 years to 6-12 years. As of now, the maximum loan repayment period offered by most banks for an education loan is 7 years. While some lenders do form an exception by providing a repayment period of 10 years depending on the sum of money borrowed. An extended loan period would lessen the pressure on the borrower both in terms of cash outflow and time span. Tax concession: Presently, the Government offers an extension to tax concession on education loans. Previously, tax concession was confined only to loans taken for graduate and post graduate courses in streams like medicine, engineering, management and post-graduate courses in applied sciences or pure sciences, including mathematics and statistics. But now, tax concession has been extended to all streams of study including vocational courses. |